Photo by Matthew N on Unsplash

Chances are, you’ve heard of Valentina Tereshkova(the first woman in space) and Sally Ride(the first American woman in space).  But there are many other trailblazing women who have helped us greatly in our understanding of space that you may not recognize by name. This month, Safe Harbor International Ministries is celebrating women, and what better way to highlight some hard-working role models? Here are some influential women in space that you might not have heard of. 

Peggy Whitson

Whitson was the first female Space Station Commander. In April 2008 during Expedition 16, she earned this title. In addition, she was NASA’s first official Science Officer on the station in the Expedition 5 crew in 2002 and she spent 185 days on the International Space Station! She also holds the title for being the oldest woman in space, having returned from her final mission at age 57. During this mission, she commanded the International Space Station Expedition 51 in 2016. She has spent a grand total of 665 days in space. That’s nearly 2 years! In her early life, she attended Iowa Wesleyan College and Rice University before she went on to start her career at NASA as a Research Biochemist. 

Photo by Norbert Kowalczyk on Unsplash

Svetlana Savitskaya

On July 24th, 1984, Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to complete a spacewalk. During this spacewalk, which was nearly 3 hours long, she spent her time performing welding experiments just outside the space station. In addition, she was also the second woman to ever be in space when she was a research cosmonaut on the space station Salyut 7 in August 1982. When she came back to earth, she switched gears and began a career in politics. 

Christina Koch and Jessica Meir 

In October of 2019, the first all-female spacewalk took place. The spacewalk was unplanned, but Christina Koch and Jessica Meir performed the spacewalk in order to fix a broken battery component on the International Space Station. This was Koch’s fourth spacewalk and Meir’s first. The women were guided in their spacewalk by a team made up of individuals on board the International Space Station and back on Earth. During this mission, Koch also flew the first nearly year-long mission for a woman in space. 

Mae Jemison

Jemison became the first African American woman in space in September of 1992 during a space shuttle endeavor. Jemison earned degrees in Chemical Engineering, African, and African American studies at Stanford, then went on to pursue a doctorate of medicine from Cornell. She was a doctor and served in the Peace Corps before her time began at NASA. In 1992 when she was in space, she performed two different bone cell research experiments. 

JoAnn Morgan

JoAnn Morgan was the first female engineer at NASA, and the first (and only) woman allowed in the launch firing room during the Apollo 11 liftoff. At the time, she was only 28. As an instrumentation controller, she worked with the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity as well as helping with the Apollo 11 liftoff. Morgan began working at NASA during the summers before she even graduated from college at Jacksonville State University with a degree in Mathematics. One of her mentors noticed her potential and provided her with the necessary certification to become a Junior Engineer on the team at NASA when she graduated college. 

Margaret Hamilton

While Margaret Hamilton was not an astronaut, her work for NASA was extremely valuable. Hamilton led the NASA team that developed software that landed Apollo 11 on the moon. She learned how to write software in a job she took at MIT. Her software there, which predicted the weather, made her a great candidate for NASA. Hamilton became the first programmer that was hired for the Apollo 11 project. After her work with Apollo 11, she became well known for making the term “software engineer” popular. 

Photo by Jahsie Ault on Unsplash

Sunita Williams

During the Expedition 15 mission in 2007, American astronaut Sunita Williams registered for the Boston Marathon. She went on to run the marathon in 4 hours and 26 while onboard the International Space Station. She used a special treadmill called the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, which replicates running on earth. Williams ran the marathon in order to inspire kids to engage in physical activities and raise awareness for physical fitness. 

Conclusion

These women made great strides for our understanding of space throughout their careers. However, they also made great strides for womankind. Space travel has been a particularly male-dominated industry for a long time. However, these inspirational women left their mark on the world and became wonderful role models for generations to come. Whether your interests are in a STEM field or a less traditionally male-dominated field, know that you can embrace your femininity and also make a difference!

Written by Jackie Ebel, a blogger at Safe Harbor International Ministries. For more articles, check out our blog page: https://safeharborim.com/articles/.