Who are the women who have explored space to date?

Answer 1

As of August, 2009, 51 women have been in space. (Four have died in flight.) (* Christa McAuliffe, who was to have been the first Teacher in Space, was killed in the Challenger takeoff explosion in January, 1986, along with astronaut Judith Resnik. McAuliffe did not reach space and is not listed below. Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark were killed in the reentry breakup of the shuttle Columbia in February, 2003.) Female spaceflight personnel by year : * 1963 : Valentina Tereshkova (USSR - first woman in space) * 1965 : Svetlana Savitskaya (USSR - second woman in space, first to spacewalk / EVA ) * 1983 : Sally Kristen Ride (USA - third woman, first American woman) * 1984 : *Judith Resnik (USA - mission specialist aboard 1st flight Discovery, killed in 1986 on Challenger) * 1984 : Kathryn Sullivan (USA - 3 shuttle flights, first American woman to spacewalk / EVA ) * 1984 : Anna Fisher (USA, shuttle payload specialist) * 1985 : Shannon Lucid (USA - 7 shuttle flights, 1 extended mission 179 days aboard MIR space station 1996) * 1985 : Margaret Seddon (USA - payload specialist, 3 shuttle missions through 1993) * 1985 : Bonnie Dunbar (USA - payload specialist , 5 shuttle flights through 1998) * 1985 : Mary Cleave (USA - made 2 shuttle flights, 1985 and 1989, ground CAPCOM on five others) * 1989 : Kathryn Thornton (USA - 4 shuttle flights, 1st American woman to make multiple EVA's) * 1989 : Ellen Baker (USA - 3 shuttle missions 1989, 1992, and 1995) * 1990 : Marsha Ivins (USA - 5 flights thru 2001) * 1991 : Helen Sharman (UK - 1st Briton in space aboard Soyuz; flew to MIR but did not stay, returned to Earth in the previous Soyuz craft at MIR) * 1991 : Millie Hughes-Fulford (USA - biological payload specialist, 1 shuttle flight) * 1991 : Linda Godwin (USA - 4 shuttle missions thru 2001, visited both MIR and International Space Station- ISS) * 1991 : Tamara Jernigan (USA - mission specialist 5 shuttle missions thrum 1999) * 1992 : Mae Jemison (USA - physician and 1st African-American female in space) * 1992 : Roberta Bondar (first female Canadian astronaut, neurologist, worked in Spacelab) * 1992 : Nancy J. Davis (USA doctor, 3 shuttle missions thru 1997, including one with her husband, fellow astronaut Mark C. Lee - they were the 1st married couple simultaneously in space) * 1993 : Susan Helms (later USAF Brigadier General, 5 flights thru 2001, one stay ISS 2001) * 1993 : Nancy Currie (US Army engineer and pilot, flew 4 shuttle missions thru 2002) * 1993 : Janice Voss (USA - mission specialist 5 shuttle flights thru 2000) * 1993 : Ellen Ochoa (USA - 1st Hispanic woman in space, 4 flights thru 2002) * 1994 : Yelena Kondakova - ( 3rd Soviet/Russian female in space, flew Soyuz to MIR and later on space shuttle 1997) * 1994 : Chiaki Mukai (Japan-USA 1st Japanese female in space, 2 shuttle flights thru 1998) * 1995 : Wendy Lawrence (US Navy CAPT and Naval Academy gradute, 4 shuttle missions thru 2005 - flew to MIR twice) * 1995 : Eileen Collins (USAF test pilot, flew 5 shuttle missions thru 2005 , 1st female pilot, 1st female Shuttle Mission Commander) * 1995 : Catherine Coleman (USAF officer, made 2 shuttle flights 1995 and 1999) * 1995 : Mary Weber (USA - skydiver and pilot, made 2 shuttle flights 1995 and 2000) * 1996 : Claudie (André-Deshays) Haigneré - (France, 4 Soyuz flights, both to MIR and ISS, 1st French female in space) * 1996 : Joan Higginbotham (USA - mission specialist) * 1997 : Susan (Still) Kilrain (U.S. Navy CDR - shuttle pilot 2 flights 1997) * 1998 : Kathryn Hire (US Navy CAPT, veteran of Iraq War 2001-03) * 1998 : Janet Kavandi (USA - 3 shuttle missions thru 2001) * 1999 : Julie Payette (Canadian - robotic arm specialist, NASA ground CAPCOM) - flew a second shuttle mission in 2009. * 2000 : Pamela Melroy (retired USAF COL and Gulf War veteran, 3 shuttle flights, third as commander, thru 2007) * 2002 : Peggy Whitson (USA, 4 space flights thru 2007, longest cumulative female duration in space, 376 days, with two ISS stays ; most EVAs by female : 5) * 2002 : Sandra Magnus (USA engineer, aboard International Space Station Nov. 2008- Feb 2009 - one other shuttle flight 2002) * 2003 : *Kalpana Chawla (1st Indian-American woman, died in the Columbia disaster) * 2003 : *Laurel Clark (decorated U.S. Navy Flight Surgeon, died in the Columbia disaster) * 2006: Anousheh Ansari (born 1966), 4th "space tourist" (1st female, 1st female Muslim, first Iranian in space) * 2006 : Sunita Williams (US Navy CDR, 1st Indian-American female in space, longest female spaceflight - 195 days including ISS stay) * 2006 : Lisa Nowak (US Navy CAPT, robotic arm specialist - later indicted in 'love triangle' with male astronaut and pending trial) * 2006 : Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (US Navy CAPT, 2 shuttle flights, * 1st "space litterbug", losing tool bag still visible from Earth) * 2007 : Tracy Caldwell (chemist, shuttle mission specialist) * 2007 : Stephanie Wilson (USA - 2nd African-American female in space) * 2007 : Barbara Morgan (USA - backup to Christa McAuliffe as Teacher in Space, 1986, finally flew 21 years later after teaching career) * 2008 : Karen Nyberg (USA shuttle specialist, became the "50th woman in space") * 2008 : Yi So-yeon (Flew in Soyuz mission to ISS, 1st Korean woman, 2nd Asian woman in space) * 2009 : Kathryn Megan Arthur (Hubble telescope specialist) (As above, a 51 total through 2008 would include McAuliffe, so Yi So-Yeon was technically the 50th woman to fly in space, instead of Karen Nyberg)
(Photos and more : see the related links)