Milestones of 50 years of Women in Spaceships

Fifty years ago, a young Russian parachute jumper became the first female to be blasted into space, a milestone that has evolved into today’s key role for women in spaceships.

Valentina Tereshkova, 76, will undoubtedly be feted at many a ceremony this week as her June 19, 1963 flight of Vostok 6 forty-eight times around the world was another shocking first for the Soviet Union in the Moon Race with the United States.

Valentina Tereshkova, 1st woman in space

Those were the infant days of the Space Age, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev used his nation’s space program for pure propaganda purposes to exploit the superiority of the Communist way of life.  Khrushchev ordered the female in space program, then orchestrated behind the scenes the convenient romance of Tereshkova to bachelor cosmonaut and Vostok 3 flier Andrian Nikolayev.  They bore a “space baby,” daughter Elena, who became a doctor.

The lasting fame Tereshkova will have includes her name on a lunar crater, an asteroid, monuments at her birthplace in Yaroslavl and where she landed in Altai, a “Cosmos” museum near her home, a planetarium several school and dozens of streets.  

After her flight, she was kept in the spotlight through three decades of service in Soviet politics: from 1966-74 as a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union; from 1974-1989 as a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet; and from 1969-91 as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

Tereshkova inspired a generation of women to reach for the stars and become astronauts or cosmonauts.  Her spaceship code name was “Seagull,” and when she landed after spending three days in space, her mission had eclipsed the time spent in space by America’s first six Mercury spacemen added together!  The impression to the world was that the Soviet Union had a big lead in the Moon Race.

Valentina Tereshkova 1990s

It was nearly twenty years after Tereshkova that the Soviets again flew a woman, this time Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya who flew aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982, becoming the second woman in space. She made another flight in July 1984, which included the first spacewalk by a woman on the Salyut 7 Space Station.

  So, like many of the early Soviet space missions, Tereshkova’s spaceflight was a big propaganda stunt, though her performance in space was equal to all the men who flew before and after her.  

The space flight of Savitskaya may have been pushed ahead as America had announced plans for their first female to fly in space as group of six women astronauts were selected for training in 1977. The first to fly was Sally Ride on June 18, 1983 aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.  Ride flew again in 1984, and then promoted human space flight until her death from cancer in July 2012.

Liu Yang, China's 1st female spaceflier 2012

 And in just its fourth human space mission, the Chinese a year ago launched their first female “taikonaut” on the anniversary of Tereshkova’s historic space first.   Liu Yang, 33, was launched June 12, 2012 aboard a Chinese Shenzhou 9 spacecraft with two men.  They stayed a week aboard the boxcar-sized, prototype space station called Tiangong 1

While the Russians have not orbited another female in space since 1997, the American astronaut corps of 100 is one-fourth women, and they have served major roles in the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs.  

As of June 2013, , 56 women have flown in space, out of 527 total space travelers. By country of origin: one each from, France, UK, South Korea; two each from China, Canada and Japan, three from Soviet Union/Russia, and 46 from the United States.

While the Soviet Union sent the first two women into space, only three of all the women in space have been Russian. However, the French, British, South Korean and Iranian women all flew as part of the Soviet or Russian space program.

Notable female space travelers:

• 

  Judy Resnik aboard Challenger

  Judy Resnik, First Jewish-American and first female astronaut to die in flight during launch of Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986.  Her crewmate who also died with five others was Christa McAuliffe, not technically an astronaut until reaching orbit.  Resnik flew two Shuttle missions and was the fourth female to orbit in August 1984.
• Shannon Lucid, 8th, is the first American woman to fly on a space station, the Russian MIR.  She has made five space flights, the best known being her last when she spent 188 days in space, 179 on MIR.  She is the first woman to make a third, a fourth and a fifth spac79. Her stay on Mir was not expected to last so long but her return was delayed twice, extending her stay by about six weeks
• Eileen Collins, 27th with four shuttle missions, including first female pilot and first commander.  This included the July 2005 Discovery, STS-114, the important return to flight after the reentry destruction of Shuttle Columbia.
• Anousheh Ansari, 44th female, and the fourth space tourist, paying 20 million for a rocket ride in a Russian Soyuz and a week on the International Space Station. Ansari, a software multi-millionaire American-Iranian, was blasted into space aboard the Soyuz TMA-9 mission with a Russian and American.
• Yelena Vladimirovna Kondakova, 26th,  was the third Russian woman to travel to space.  Her first trip into space was in October 1994, and she returned to Earth in March 1995 after a five-month stay on the MIR Space Station. Kondakova's second flight was as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle Atlantis in May 1997, the last time a  Russian woman has flown to space.

• 

  Laurel Clark aboard Columbia
  

  Laurel Clark, the 40th female astronaut and third to lose her life. She was killed with six others aboard the reentry disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia, Feb. 1, 2003.  
• Peggy Whitson, the 38th female in space, and the first commander of the International Space Station In October 2007. She is one of 10 females to perform a spacewalk.

• 

  Sunita Willams and her EVA suit
  

  Sunita Williams, lady astronaut number 45, holds the record for the longest single space flight by a female, 195 days, total spacewalks by a woman, seven; and the most spacewalk time for a 
  woman, 50 hours, 40 minutes A veteran of two spaceflights, on her extended mission she had a fellow astronaut cut her long, brunette hair for the Locks of Love foundation, and the hair was sent back to Earth by returning astronauts. She is training for another mission.
  
  

And there’s a female astronaut for the tabloids....remember Lisa Nowalk?  Good if you don’t, because she was one of NASA’s most embarrassing moments.  Oh, it’s coming back now, huh?  Yup. She’s the love-lorn astronaut who drove non-stop from Houston, Texas to Cape Kennedy, Florida with adult “astronaut” diapers to avoid bathroom breaks.  

Nowak gained international attention on February 5, 2007, when she was arrested at the airport in Orlando, Florida, and subsequently charged with the attempted kidnapping of U.S. Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, who was romantically involved with astronaut William Oefelien, Nowak’s former boyfriend.

Nowak, the 42nd female astronaut, flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-121 mission in July 2006, where she was responsible for operating the robotic arms of the shuttle and the International Space Station.

On November 10, 2009, Nowak entered a guilty plea to lesser charges. She was sentenced to a year's probation and the two days already served in jail, with no additional jail time. Needless to say, she was discharged from the astronaut corps.

Karen Nyberg on ISS

Tonight circling the Earth every ninety minutes are two women on separate space stations.  

On the International Space Station is 43-year-old flight engineer Karen Nyberg, experiencing her second mission as a weightless astronaut, 200 miles above Earth. She is one of six members of the Expedition 36 crew, having been blasted ot the ISS May 28th with a Russian and European spacefliers, and will return to Earth sometime in October.  

And China has launched its second female into space, a June 11th blast-ff with two males destine for the small Tiangong 1 Space Station. Wang Yaping has become the 56th female to be orbited 200 miles above Earth. She and her fellow "taikonauts" have been announced to be on a 15-day mission, ending around June 26th.

Wang Yaping preparing for blastoff

The ISS is easy to see when flying overhead in the morning or evening twilight. The viewing times are available at many places on the Internet, just google “observing ISS.” And it is possible to see the fainter Chinese Tiangong 1 with the Shenzhou 10  spacecraft attached. Than you can look up and give a wave to the seven men and two ladies pioneering the unknowns of outer space in this second decade of the 21st Century.