It’s been nearly 40 years since NASA astronaut Sally Ride became the first U.S. woman to go to space. Since then, women have made great strides in the field, breaking through barriers and making significant contributions to spaceflight.
Although the space industry is still mainly dominated by men, there are ongoing efforts for missions to be more inclusive. NASA wants to land the first woman on the Moon no earlier than 2025 as part of its Artemis 3 mission, and an increasing number of women astronauts are taking on the commander position in space.
NASA released a set of photos on Tuesday illustrating the progress made by women in the field thus far, and making room for more women in the near future.
The first woman in space
On June 16, 1963, the Soviet Union launched cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on a three-day flight aboard the Vostok 6 capsule. That historic flight marked the beginning of women’s history in space, as it was the first time a woman had ever flown on board a spacecraft.
A Ride to space
Almost 20 years later, the United States finally sent a woman to space. Sally Ride was one of 35 people selected in 1978 as the first class of NASA astronauts that included women and minorities. She was chosen among five other women out of 8,000 applicants, according to NASA. Ride was among the first four of that class to travel to space as a member of the Space Shuttle Challenger’s STS-7 crew, which lifted off on June 18, 1983.
Pioneering Columbia crew
In June 1991, three women flew together to space for the first time, which they did during the STS-40 Space Shuttle Columbia mission. NASA astronauts M. Rhea Seddon, Tamara Jernigan, and Millie Hughes-Fulford served on the fifth dedicated Spacelab mission (a reusable lab used on some Shuttle missions), and the first to be dedicated solely to life science.
Long-duration flights
Russian cosmonaut Elena Kondakova holds the title for the first woman to complete a long-duration mission in space after spending 169 days aboard the space station Mir. Kondakova launched on October 3, 1994 as part of Expedition 17, landing back on Earth on March 22, 1995.
First female pilot
In February 1995, NASA astronaut Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle mission, which she did during the STS-63 Discovery flight. Later in July 1999, Collins made history once again as the first woman commander of a Shuttle mission during the STS-93 Columbia flight. Then in July 2005, Collins was the first woman to command a Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
A historic handshake in space
On October 25, 2007, NASA astronaut Peggy A. Whitson, then commander of the ISS), greeted Pamela Melroy, a commander of a visiting Space Shuttle. This moment, captured 15 years ago, marked the first handshake between two women commanders in space. Since then, 44 women have worked aboard the ISS as long-duration crew members or as visitors from Space Shuttle assembly flights and Soyuz missions.
Whitson holds the record for most cumulative spaceflight time, not only for a woman, but for any U.S. astronaut. She spent a total of 665 days in space, according to NASA.
First all-women spacewalk
Women had been serving on the ISS for years before NASA managed to organise the first all-women spacewalk outside the orbiting space station. On October 18, 2019, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir ventured outside the ISS for routine maintenance work that made history. At that point, there had been more than 200 spacewalks, but none had included two women at the same time.
Women on the ISS
Since the arrival of NASA astronaut Kate Rubins to the ISS on October 14, 2020 as part of Expedition 64, there has been at least one woman as a member of an expedition crew on board the orbiting space station.
Two women commanders meet
On October 5, 2022 NASA astronaut Nicole Mann arrived at the ISS as commander of the SpaceX Crew-5 mission while European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was serving as commander of the ISS. That orbital linkup marked the second time two women commanders met on board the ISS. Cristoforetti had also made history as the first European woman to hold the position of commander of the ISS.