Iconic Women Astronauts who made their Countries Proud

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a professional who deals with the study of space and gets trained to travel in outer-orbit. Over the years, many women have also received rigorous training in space inventions and have made their country proud by representing their nation in the space map. They have conducted critical experiments and undertaken crucial voyages for the benefits of space exploration. Here is the list of some iconic women astronauts who have earned fame.

Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Tereshkova is a renowned woman astronaut from the erstwhile Soviet Union who was also the "First Lady of Space". She was also the youngest women in space, traveling to the outer orbit at the age of 26, and the only lady to operate a solo flight. She conducted extensive biomedical experiments concerning the effect of space on the human body. She also took photographs which help in confirming the presence of aerosols in the earth’s atmosphere. In her daily life, Valentina Tereshkova was an expert parachutist which helped in achieving her feat of becoming an astronaut. In her time, re-entry to the earth for spaceships was very risky, so, astronauts ejected out of the space shuttle through a parachute at 7000 feet for their safety. Tereshkova traveled in Vostok 6 during June 16, 1963.

Sally Ride

Sally Ride was the first American lady in space. She also rose to the rank of capsule communicator (CapCom) and played a crucial role in developing a robotic arm for the space shuttle. Sally Ride was a member for two space missions (STS-7 and STS-61) while boarding the Challenger space shuttle. She performed critical pharmaceutical experiments at space and helped in launching artificial satellites. She was also the first astronaut to use the robotic arm while retrieving a satellite in the outer orbit. The ride was an elite astronaut of NASA, serving the agency for a prolonged duration. She was also the member of the Presidential Commissions which investigated the Challenger and Columbia crashes.

Kalpana Chawla

Dr. Kalpana Chawla was a reputed Indian-born astronaut inspiring many professionals to play an active role in the Indian space mission. Before relocating to the United States for completing her doctorate in aerospace engineering, she earned her Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering degree from the prestigious Punjab Engineering College. Dr. Kalpana Chawla started working for NASA in 1988 at the Ames Research Centre. She took the first space flight boarding Columbia space shuttle as a member of STS-87 in 1994. In that space mission, Chawla deployed the Spartan Satellite. NASA selected her for a second manned-space mission STS-107 in 2003 again onboarding Columbia space shuttle. However, this mission ended with a disaster during the rocket’s re-entry to the earth. All crew members lost their lives in the tragic crash.

Nicola Baumann

In 2016, when Germany was selecting a suitable candidate for becoming the country’s first woman astronaut through the ‘Die Astronautin’ competition, meteorologist Insa Thiele-Eich became the joint winner of the project. Born in Heidelberg, she is going to make Germany proud in space research through her extensive knowledge about meteorological exchange processes.

These were some iconic women astronauts who have made their country proud through their space research.

Tarini is a blogger and a travel enthusiast. She writes about cinema, space, travel, motorcycle tours in India and any topic that are trending.