![]() On her next spaceflight in 2016, she became the first woman to command the space station twice when she took command of Expedition 51. During the 192-day flight, Whitson welcomed a NASA shuttle mission commanded by another woman, Pamela Melroy, and racked up her career fifth spacewalk. Then came Expedition 16, when Whitson took her historic command of the space station. She spent 185 days in space on that flight, and also served as NASA's first official Science Officer on the station. In 1996, Whitson was selected to become a NASA astronaut and first launched to the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 5 crew in 2002. In photos: Record-breaking NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson She officially joined NASA's Johnson Space Center as a biochemist in 1989 and served as the project scienctist for the Shuttle-Mir program in 1992. A native of Mount Ayr, Iowa, Whitson grew up as a chicken farmer and earned a Ph.D in biochemistry from Rice University in 1985, after which she began working as a biochemist at NASA as a National Research Council Resident Research Associate. It was science that led to Whitson's space career. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson became the first woman to command the International Space Station when she took the helm of the outpost in April 2008 during Expedition 16. In 2012, Ride died from cancer at age 61. Ride would make history again in 1984 when she launched on the Challenger's STS-41G mission, beginning the first American woman to fly in space twice. Challenger returned to Earth with Ride and her STS-7 crewmates on June 24, wrapping up a six-day flight. STS-7's main mission was deploy communications satellites for Canada and Indonesia. The mission was NASA's seventh shuttle flight and marked the first time a woman controlled a space shuttle robotic arm. ![]() Ride was 32 when the STS-7 mission launched into space. More: Sally Ride: First American Woman in Space (Pictures) She joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1978 as one of the first six female astronauts to join the U.S. 19, 1982.īorn in Encino, California, Ride studied physics and English at Stanford University, ultimately earning a Ph.D. She was the third woman in space, after Valentina Tereshkova and Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, who flew on the Soyuz T-7 mission on Aug. woman in space when she launched on the STS-7 mission of the space shuttle Challenger. On June 18, 1983, NASA astronaut Sally Ride became the first U.S. Though an icon of Soviet space exploration, she never flew in space again and became a test pilot and instructor. Tereshkova spent 70 hours in space and orbited Earth 48 times during her mission. 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 was one of four women who received 18 months of training for Vostok 6, and was ultimately selected to pilot the flight. Infographic: How Valentina Tereshkova's 1963 Vostok 6 flight worked (Gagarin parachuted to Earth, ejecting from the Vostok capsule during descent as part of the landing sequence.) She was not a pilot, but had extensive parachuting experience, with 126 jumps under her belt. She was 26 at the time.īorn in the village of Maslennikovo northeast of Moscow, Tereshkova volunteered for the Soviet cosmonaut program after Yuri Gagarin made history as the first man to fly in space on April 12, 1961. ![]() The first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, blazed a trail for the many female spaceflyers who would follow. Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut, was selected from more than 400 applicants to launch on the Vostok 6 mission June 16, 1963.
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