32 years ago, Sally Ride made history!
On 18 June 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel in space. She became the global women empowerment icon when she boarded the space shuttle Challenger. In 2003, she was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame which honors astronauts for their accomplishments in spaceflight. She is also the founder of NASA's Earthkam project.
Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman who stepped out of earth to leap into space on 16 June, 1963. She had spent more time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date by completeing 48 orbits and 71 hours. She received the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union awards immediately after her successful flight.
In 1991, Helen Sharman became the first British and the first Brit woman to fly into space at the age of 27. She created history as the Britain-born people who had earlier been on board had to switch their nationalities and become American citizens. Interestingly, she became an astronaut by responding to a radio advertisement which invited applications for becoming the first British astronaut.
There is a website and an app which tells you the exact number of people in space on the current day along with their names. Log onto http://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/ or download their app to find out.
The first Indian-American astronaut and the first Indian woman in space, Kalpana proved herself to be a reflection of her name when she dreamt of something which girls in the town of Karnal weren't allowed to. She first flew to space in 1997 and then in 2000, both times on spaceshuttle Columbia before losing her life in the Columbia disaster which killed 7 astronauts.
Anousheh Ansari, the first Iran-born woman in space holds many records to her name, including First Muslim woman to fly in space, First Female Private Space Explorer & First Space Ambassador. She flew into space in 2006 on the Soyuz TMA-9 mission. She had also proven her business skills earlier when she served as the CEO and the co-founder of Telecom Technologies, Inc.
Till date, only 59 women have made their way into space travel while the total count of space travellers is 519.
