Valentina Tereshkova's 1963 spaceflight: 62 years of women in space milestones, challenges

She called it "Chaika," the Russian word for seagull. It was the radio call sign used by Valentina Tereshkova when she spoke to Soviet ground control from her Vostok 6 capsule on June 16, 1963, as she became the first woman to travel to space. Twenty-six years old, a former textile factory worker from a village in Russia's Yaroslavl region, she had just made history as the first woman in space. Over the next 71 hours, she completed 48 orbits of Earth, logging more time in space than all American astronauts combined to that point.

Trailblazing firsts

The next major breakthrough came in 1982, when Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman in space—and later the first woman to conduct a spacewalk in 1984. American Sally Ride followed as the first US woman in space in 1983. In 2019, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir performed the first all-female spacewalk. In April 2026, Koch became the first woman to fly around the Moon as part of NASA's Artemis II mission.

Commercial space sector

Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, is the most prominent woman in the commercial space sector. Carol Craig founded Sidus Space, becoming the first woman to found a publicly traded space company. On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin's New Shepard launched six women, including Katy Perry, on the first all-female crewed spaceflight in more than six decades—though critics called it "performative feminism" and celebrity tourism.

Gender gaps persist

Overall, only about 11% of astronauts in history have been women. Women make up only about 20% of the space workforce, hold 24% of managerial positions, 21% of leadership roles, and just 19% of board seats. At NASA, women make up roughly 35% of the agency's total workforce.