Women have proven their mettle time and again, doing things that a man can and have been doing since generations, in some cases even better than them.
Space, for the longest period of time, has been a male-dominated territory, however, over time, women too have proven their calibre, creating a revolution. Here are some women who have been written down in history as pioneers in the field of space.
We know NASA as the institution that brought humans closer to space, but none of that would have been possible without ¡°The Grand Dame of Space¡±, Eilene Galloway. Even though she herself never got to visit space, her contributions were instrumental is sending humans to space.?
She was an influential force in the development and analysis of domestic and international space law and policy. Before Sputnik was launched by Russia, it was Eilene Galloway that notified the US House Majority Leader John W. McCormack to establish a space committee, which was later called as National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA.?
While it is true that the first human to go into space was a man, NASA was testing whether they could send women to space -- due to their smaller body size that could be easily crammed in smaller spacecraft, making them lighter. Dubbed as Lovelace¡¯s Woman in Space Program -- it was a short-duration, privately-funded project that tested women pilots for astronaut fitness in the early 1960s.?
While these women never really got to go into space, the participants since then have been recognized as trailblazers, whose ambitions to fly the newest and the fastest craft led them to be among the first American women to gain access to sophisticated aerospace medical tests.
Without their tests, the future of women in space couldn¡¯t have been as bright as it is today.?
Russia initially was the most advanced in space travel, and after sending the first man to space in 1961, it soon sent its first woman to space -- Valentina Tereshkova in the year 1963.?
Not only was she the first woman in space, but she also holds the record of being the youngest woman to enter space, with a solo mission on the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. She orbited the Earth 48 times, spent almost three days in space, and remains the only woman to have been on a solo space mission.
Whenever we hear the name Kalpana Chawla, a complex emotion of pride and sadness fills our heart. She created history as being the first woman to go in space, aboard NASA¡¯s Columbia spacecraft in 1997, spending 372 hours in space.?
She went on another mission in 2003 on the STS-107 -- Columbia's 28th mission -- whereupon launch a piece of foam fell the spacecraft. While landing this affected the structural integrity of the spacecraft resulting in disintegrating in space, claiming the lives of everyone on board. Post which all manned mission to space were suspended by NASA for two years.
Sunita Williams was the second woman of Indian descent to have travelled in space. She is a former United States Navy officer and formerly was a record holder for total spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes).?
She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and Expedition 15. In 2012, she also served as a flight engineer on Expedition 32 and then commander of Expedition 33.
The next woman to have created a revolution in space is Christina Koch, who recently returned from the International Space Station after a record-breaking longest single spaceflight by a woman, spending 328 days on the International Space Station.?
During this time, she was also a part of the first all-female spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. Her record surpassed that of fellow NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson who spent 288 days in space from 2016-2017.