Historically, space science and exploration have been restricted to men, but luckily women dreaming about exploring space were also given this opportunity. The first woman to go to space was a USSR astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, just two years after Yuri Gagarin’s first manned spaceflight.
Today, there are many astronaut women, and soon enough, we will get to see the first women on the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Keep reading if you want to find out who these women are and what they have accomplished so far in the race for space exploration.
How many females have been on the moon?
First question many people ask is – has a woman walked on the moon? So far, no woman has been there – only twelve men have set their feet on our planet’s natural satellite between July 1969 and December 1972. They were all crew members of Apollo missions. But soon, we will get a chance to see female astronauts on the Moon. These ladies will pave the way for new space adventures, marking a new age of space exploration.
So far, no woman has been on the Moon – not because of political or other reasons but because we haven’t conducted any Moon missions since 1972. NASA is planning a new Moon mission with the Artemis program, with the crew landing scheduled for 2025. The Artemis 2 mission will follow the Artemis 1 success from 2022 that proved the efficiency of the Space Launch System (SLS).
When the 21st century moon landing takes place, women will be part of this mission, too. In fact, many of them are already in training. Let’s see who these women astronauts are, as they will help us take our space projects to the Moon and perhaps to other planets in our Solar System.
List of female astronauts training for the Artemis Moon mission
Orbital Today has compiled a list of female astronauts’ names based on publicly available information on astronauts already in training:
- Stephanie Wilson – working at NASA since 1996, spent 42 days in space and had 3 shuttle missions.
- Jessica Meir – a biologist who spent 205 days in orbit.
- Jessica Watkins – geology scientist who was an astronaut for the Curiosity rover mission.
- Anne McClain – an aerospace engineer who spent 204 days in space.
- Kayla Barron – formerly US Navy commander and now an astronaut.
- Christina Koch – holds a record in single women spaceflight.
- Jasmin Moghbeli – Navy test pilot and H-1 helicopter tester.
- Kathleen Rubins – biologist and the first woman who sequenced DNA in space.
Who is the first woman to go to the Moon?
The first woman to go to the Moon is Christina Koch. She will be part of the Artemis 2 Moon mission that is expected to take flight in September 2025. Two other Americans and a Canadian will join her. Mrs. Koch will be a mission specialist together with Jeremy Hanssen, whereas Victor Glover will act as a pilot. Reid Wiseman will command their ship.
Artemis 2 mission is supposed to test astronauts’ maneuvering skills and Orion spacecraft’s life support systems. If everything goes well, NASA will start preparing Artemis 3, which is a Moon landing mission. So far, we have seen women on the Moon only in movies like The Woman in the Moon and the 2019 sci-fi series For All Mankind. Of course, the Artemis mission will have a different scenario, but one thing is certain. The first woman to ever step on the Moon will be a huge achievement for humanity and will make history for us as a species.
Women who paved our way to space
Since Valentina Tereshkova’s flight on June 16, 1963, 71 other women have been in space. They have brought great contributions to science and helped the space industry develop by proving they can make it through difficult environments or situations. But let’s see a list of these women and their achievements:
- Svetlana Savitskaya – the second woman astronaut and first one to conduct an extravehicular activity (EVA).
- Sally Ride – first American woman to fly in space.
- Helen Sharman – the first UK woman astronaut and first woman who visited the Mir orbital station.
- Claudie André-Deshays – the first French astronaut woman to be on Mir and the International Space Station (ISS).
- Elena Kondakova – the first woman who made a long space flight and spent 169 days on Mir.
- Kathryn Sullivan – the first American astronaut woman to walk in space.
- Roberta Bondar – the first Canadian astronaut woman who’s also a neurologist.
Most of the other female astronauts have spent time on the ISS. Some of them helped assemble the station in orbit, whereas others went there for maintenance missions. The first woman astronaut to conduct an assembly mission in space is Nancy Currie. Astronauts Tamara Elizabeth Jernigan, Julie Payette, and Ellen Lauri Ochoa participated in the second ISS assembly mission. And we hope that this list will become longer in this decade already!
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