Ladies folk in home: A gallery of firsts

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First girl in home: Valentina Tereshkova

The predominant girl in home, Valentina Tereshkova, blazed a bound for the many female spaceflyers who would note. Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut, became chosen from bigger than 400 candidates to launch on the Vostok 6 mission June 16, 1963. She became 26 on the time. 

Born within the village of Maslennikovo northeast of Moscow, Tereshkova volunteered for the Soviet cosmonaut program after Yuri Gagarin made historical previous because the first man to fly in home on April 12, 1961. She became now not a pilot, nonetheless had in depth parachuting abilities, with 126 jumps under her belt. (Gagarin parachuted to Earth, ejecting from the Vostok tablet within the direction of descent as section of the landing sequence.)

Infographic: How Valentina Tereshkova’s 1963 Vostok 6 flight worked

Tereshkova became surely one of 4 females who received 18 months of training for Vostok 6, and became in a roundabout procedure chosen to pilot the flight. The mission launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome two days after Vostok 5, piloted by cosmonaut Valeriy Bykovsky, with the two spacecraft’s coming within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of each other. 

Tereshkova spent 70 hours in home and orbited Earth 48 cases within the direction of her mission. Even though an icon of Soviet home exploration, she by no means flew in home again and became a test pilot and teacher.

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First American girl in home: Sally Dash

On June 18, 1983, NASA astronaut Sally Dash became the first U.S. girl in home when she launched on the STS-7 mission of the home shuttle Challenger. She became the third girl in home, after Valentina Tereshkova and Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, who flew on the Soyuz T-7 mission on Aug. 19, 1982.

Born in Encino, California, Dash studied physics and English at Stanford College, in a roundabout procedure incomes a Ph.D. physics in 1973. She joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 1978 as surely a few of the first six female astronauts to be part of the U.S. home agency. 

Extra: Sally Dash: First American Woman in Home (Photos)

Dash became 32 when the STS-7 mission launched into home. The mission became NASA’s seventh shuttle flight and marked the first time a girl managed a home shuttle robotic arm. STS-7’s main mission became deploy communications satellites for Canada and Indonesia. Challenger returned to Earth with Dash and her STS-7 crewmates on June 24, wrapping up a six-day flight. 

Dash would possess historical previous again in 1984 when she launched on the Challenger’s STS-41G mission, beginning effect the first American girl to fly in home twice. 

In 2012, Dash died from most cancers at age 61.

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First female home position commander: Peggy Whitson

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson became the first girl to disclose the Global Home Site when she took the helm of the outpost in April 2008 within the direction of Expedition 16.

It became science that ended in Whitson’s home occupation. A local of Mount Ayr, Iowa, Whitson grew up as a rooster farmer and earned a Ph.D in biochemistry from Rice College in 1985, after which she started working as a biochemist at NASA as a National Analysis Council Resident Analysis Affiliate. She formally joined NASA’s Johnson Home Heart as a biochemist in 1989 and served because the project scienctist for the Shuttle-Mir program in 1992. 

In images: Legend-breaking NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson

In 1996, Whitson became chosen to change genuine into a NASA astronaut and first launched to the Global Home Site as section of the Expedition 5 crew in 2002. She spent 185 days in home on that flight, and also served as NASA’s first legitimate Science Officer on the position.

Then came Expedition 16, when Whitson took her historical disclose of the home position. For the interval of the 192-day flight, Whitson welcomed a NASA shuttle mission commanded by one other girl, Pamela Melroy, and racked up her occupation fifth spacewalk. 

On her next spaceflight in 2016, she became the first girl to disclose the home position twice when she took disclose of Expedition 51. She holds the file for being the oldest girl in home, having returned from her final mission on the age of 57. 

Whitson retired from NASA in June 2018. She has spent a full of 665 days in home.

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First female spacewalker: Svetlana Savitskaya

The predominant girl to full a spacewalk, or extravehicular job (EVA), became Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya. 

Savitskaya became the 2d girl to fly in home in August 1982 – 19 years after Valentina Tereshkova’s flight – when she served as a be taught cosmonaut on the home position Salyut 7. She launched on a Soyuz T-7 spacecraft on Aug. 19 , 1982 and spent returned to Earth eight days later. 

Nonetheless it became within the direction of Savitskaya’s 2d accelerate back and forth to Salyut 7 in 1984 that she made historical previous because the first girl to lumber in home. She became also the first girl ever to fly in home a 2d time.

Savitskaya launched with two crewmates aboard Soyuz T-12 on July 17, 184 and spent 12 days on Salyut 7. Her spacewalk took place on July 24, when she and crewmate Vladimir Dzhanibekov spent bigger than three hours spacewalking and performing welding experiments in orbit. 

Born in Moscow, Savitskaya became resolute to fly at a younger age. She started parachuting at age 16 and joined the Soviet Aerobatics Team at age 18 to compose daredevil stunts and performances in plane, per the UK Home Agency. She became chosen to be part of the Soviet cosmonaut corps in 1980 and holds a master’s level in flight engineering.

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First U.S. female spacewalker: Kathy Sullivan

NASA astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first American girl to compose a spacewalk when she floated exterior the home shuttle Challenger within the direction of mission STS-41-G on Oct. 11, 1984.

Sullivan’s spacewalk took place appropriate months after the first-ever spacewalk by a girl (cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya’s excursion in July of that yr) within the direction of Challenger’s 9-day mission to deploy an Earth commentary satellite (the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite tv for computer) and label satellite refueling technology. 

Sullivan holds a Ph.D in geology and joined NASA’s eight class of astronauts in 1978, training for spaceflight for six years while looking forward to her first project. That project became the STS-41-G mission, when she became the first American girl to lumber in home. 

In April 1990, Sullivan returned to home on the shuttle Discovery, this time to support deploy the Hubble Home Telescope. In 1993, Sullivan left NASA to support as chief scientist for NOAA and in a roundabout procedure became NOAA’s Administrator in 2014.

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First African American girl in home: Mae Jemison

NASA astronaut Mae Jemison flew on home shuttle Endeavour in September 1992, turning into the first African-American girl to budge to home.

Born in Decatur, Alabama, Jemison grew up in Chicago and earned levels in chemical engineering and African and African-American be taught at Stanford College, moreover doctorate in medicines from Cornell College. After working as a health care provider for just a few years and serving term within the Peace Corps, Jemison joined NASA as an astronaut in 1987. 

Jemison launched into home on Endeavour on Sept. 12, 1992 as section of the seven-particular person STS-47 crew. She served as a mission specialist, performing experiments in two bone cell be taught experiments among other tasks. Endeavour carried a Spacelab module in its payload bay to enable room for bigger than 43 varied be taught within the direction of the mission. 

Jemison spent appropriate over 190 hours in home within the direction of the STS-47 mission and left NASA in March 1993. 

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First female home shuttle commander: Eileen Collins

NASA astronaut Eileen Collins became the first girl to disclose a home shuttle mission, a position that required an astronaut to savor as a minimum 1,000 hours of abilities piloting jet plane. Collins commanded the STS-93 home shuttle mission in July 1999, and went on to disclose a 2d time in July 2005.

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First girl to use (practically) 1 yr in home: Christina Koch

In April 2019, NASA launched that Expedition 59 astronaut Christina Koch’s mission on the Global Home Site will be extended to last 328 days. She broke the file for the longest single spaceflight by a girl — a file that became previously held by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who spent 289 consecutive days in home from 2016 to 2017. Koch launched to the home position on March 14, 2019 and returned to Earth on Feb. 6, 2020.  

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First all-female spacewalk

On Oct. 18, 2019, two NASA astronauts made home historical previous with the sector’s first all-female spacewalk. NASA astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir test their spacesuits for his or her historical Oct. 18, 2019 spacewalk.

NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir went exterior the Global Home Site on an unplanned repair spacewalk to repair a fault battery ingredient. Koch, a spacewalk used, led the EVA while Meir performed her first spacewalk. 

Koch and Meir had been section of the Expedition 61 crew, with Koch also flying the first practically yearlong home mission by a girl. Koch dwelling a singular file for the longest single spaceflight, having spent 328 consecutive days on board the orbiting laboratory. (The old file holder became Peggy Whitson, who spent 289 consecutive days in home.)

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First teacher in home: Barbara Morgan

NASA’s unique thought to ship the first teacher to home became thwarted when Christa McAuliffe and her six crewmates had been killed aboard the home shuttle Challenger, which became destroyed appropriate after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986. Twelve years later, McAuliffe’s backup Barbara Morgan became the first educator to be triumphant in orbit under NASA’s Instructor in Home program, when she flew on the STS-118 flight of the shuttle Endeavour in August 2007. She spent a full of 12 days in home within the direction of her first and most fascinating spaceflight. Earlier than she joined NASA in 1998, Morgan taught math, science and finding out courses to elementary faculty students in Montana, Idaho and Ecuador for 24 years. She retired from NASA in 2008 to continue educating at Boise Bid College. 

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First to sequence DNA in home: Kate Rubins

NASA astronaut and microbiologist Kate Rubins became the first researcher to sequence DNA in home within the direction of her first mission to the Global Home Site in 2016, when she spent 115 days working as a flight engineer for Expedition 48. Rubins, who holds a doctorate in most cancers biology from Stanford College, sequenced DNA samples from a mouse, a virus and bacteria to study a commercially accessible DNA sequencing diagram known as MinION.

“With a system to sequence DNA in home, astronauts would perchance well most possible diagnose an illness, or title microbes growing within the Global Home Site and desire whether or now not or now not they portray a health threat,” NASA officials said in a assertion. “A home-based completely DNA sequencer will be a if truth be told necessary instrument to support offer protection to astronaut health within the direction of long interval missions on the budge to Mars, and future explorers would perchance well most possible doubtlessly utilize the technology to title DNA-based completely existence varieties previous Earth.”

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First Briton in home: Helen Sharman

British food chemist and non-public citizen Helen Sharman became the first British particular person to fly in home when she visited the Mir home position aboard the Soyuz TM-12 in Would perchance also neutral 1991. For the interval of this flight, she also became the first girl to keep up a correspondence over with the Mir home position.

Sharman’s avenue to home became a cramped varied from the expert astronauts and cosmonauts of NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos agency. 

In 1989, Sharman answered a radio commercial calling for candidates to fly in home as section of Project Juno, a collaboration between non-public British firms and the Soviet Union to launch a Briton into home. She beat out practically 13,000 other candidates to desire the coveted space and spent 18 months training to fly on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. 

Sharman launched to Mir on Would perchance also neutral 18, 2991 and spent eight days in home performing biological and crystal enhance experiments, moreover talking with British schoolchildren through radio. 

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First Canadian girl in home: Roberta Bondar

Roberta Bondar became Canada’s first female astronaut when she flew on the STS-42 home shuttle mission in 1992. 

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First Jap girl in home: Chiaki Mukai

The predominant Jap girl in home became Chiaki Mukai, representing the National Home Construction Agency of Japan (NASDA). Mukai flew on the home shuttle Columbia within the direction of mission STS-65 in July 1994. At the time, she dwelling the file for the longest flight to this level by a female astronaut.

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First French girl in home: Claudie Haigneré

Physician Claudie Haigneré became the first and most fascinating French girl to budge to home when she flew to the Russian home position Mir in 1996. In 2001, she became the first European girl to keep up a correspondence over with the Global Home Site.

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First girl to be part of an ISS crew: Susan Helms

The predominant female member of an Global Home Site crew became NASA astronaut Susan Helms, who served as a flight engineer within the direction of the Expedition 2 mission from March to August 2001.

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First female home tourist: Anousheh Ansari

Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari became the first female home tourist when she funded her beget system to the Global Home Site aboard a Russian Soyuz home tablet in 2006 throughout the agency Home Adventures.

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First South Korean in home: Yi So-yeon

South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon became her nation’s first home traveler when she rode to the Global Home Site on Russia’s Soyuz TMA-12 in April 2008.

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First marathon in home: Suni Williams

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams became the first particular person to flee a marathon in home within the direction of the Expedition 15 mission in 2007. She formally registered for the Boston Marathon and ran 26 miles in 4 miles and 26 minutes on the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) within the Tranquility node of the Global Home Site.

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China’s 1st female taikonaut: Liu Wang

China’s first female astronaut Liu Wang waves to supporters while clad in a spacesuit appropriate sooner than boarding the Shenzhou 9 home tablet for a a hit June 19, 2012 launch from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for computer Originate Heart.

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Most time in home: Peggy Whitson

The girl who has spent basically the most full time in home is Peggy Whitson, who has logged 665 days, 22 hours and 22 minutes in orbit over the span of three trips to the Global Home Site. When she returned from her final accelerate back and forth to home in 2017, she had logged more hours in home than any U.S. astronaut — male or female.

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Four females in home

Four females serving collectively on the Global Home Site on April 14, 2010, represented the very supreme sequence of females in home concurrently. Clockwise from lower lawful are NASA astronauts Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, each STS-131 mission specialists; and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Expedition 23 flight engineer; in conjunction with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, STS-131 mission specialist.