NASA ISS Astronaut Karen Nyberg honours Valentina Tereshkova, First Woman in Space - Video

Current ISS crewmember Karen LuJean Nyberg recorded a special message to commemorate the 50th anniversary of cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's June 13th 1963 space flight. 

Credit: NASA

Valentina Tereshkova became first woman in space; Fifty years ago

On June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly into space in a scientific feat that was a major propaganda coup for the Soviet Union.

Two years after Yuri Gagarin's historic first manned flight, Tereshkova blasted off in a Vostok-6 spaceship, becoming a national heroine at the age of 26.

She remains the only woman ever to have made a solo space flight.

In April 1962, officials narrowed down the candidates for the flight to five. In a top-secret process, they picked two engineers, one school teacher, one typist and one factory worker who had performed 90 parachute jumps: this was Tereshkova.

After seven months of intensive training, they chose Tereshkova, who grew up in a peasant family and was a Communist Youth (Komsomol) leader at her textile factory in the historic city of Yaroslavl, around 280 kilometres (174 miles) from Moscow.

Tereshkova was not allowed to confide even in family members, who only learnt of her exploit when Moscow announced it to the entire world.

When she blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, another Soviet spaceship, Vostok-5, was already in orbit for two days, piloted by cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky.

During her three-day mission, Tereshkova circled Earth 48 times. On the first day, she communicated with Bykovsky and even sang him songs.

Their communication was then interrupted as the two spaceships moved further away from each other.

Her flight experienced numerous glitches which were only made public after the fall of the Soviet Union.

"A problem appeared on the first day of the flight," Tereshkova said at a press conference in Star City, home to a cosmonaut training centre, earlier this month.

"Due to a technical error, the spaceship was programmed not for a landing but for taking the ship into a higher orbit," she said, meaning that the ship was heading further and further from Earth.

The error was corrected, but chief constructor Sergei Korolyov asked Tereshkova not to tell anyone.
"I kept the secret for 30 years," she said.

Tereshkova wrote in her official report that her spacesuit hurt her leg and that her helmet weighed down her shoulders and scratched her head.

She also said she vomited during the flight.

This information was also kept under wraps so as not to spoil the triumph of the first woman in space.

Tereshkova's landing also prompted concerns at mission control.

She had difficulty in guiding her spaceship and her communications were cut off just before descent began, Soviet general Nikolai Kamanin, who was in charge of the space sector at the time, revealed later.

Tereshkova catapulted out of her space capsule—as was then standard procedure—and parachuted down to land in Altai in southern Siberia.

But mission control did not know Tereshkova's location for two hours after she landed, spaceship constructor Boris Chertok admitted in his memoirs.

Rescuers finally found her tens of kilometres away from the expected spot.

Tereshkova has said in interviews that during the landing her nose smashed against the visor of her helmet and she had to cover up the bruise with make-up at official ceremonies.

After her accomplishment, the second woman to go into space in 1982 was also from the Soviet Union, Svetlana Savitskaya. In 1983 the first American woman, Sally Ride, followed.

Since then more than 40 women from the US have gone into space, but just one other Russian, Yelena Kondakova, in 1994 and 1997.

Doctor Yelena Dobrokvashina trained for 14 years for space and was set to take part in an all-female mission with Savitskaya that was eventually dropped.

"It was probably because of male chauvinism," Dobrokvashina, now employed at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems that works with cosmonauts, told reporters.

"When we were training at Star City, the space industry chiefs were divided: some supported the all-female project, while others could not stand the idea."

Now another would-be cosmonaut, Yelena Serova, 36, is training for a six-month mission to the International Space Station next year.

Speaking to reporters, she called Tereshkova "a heroic personality, the woman of the century".

"If all goes well and my flight goes ahead, that will be a signal to encourage more and more women to try their strength in space," she said.

Like Gagarin, Tereshkova made just one space flight.

Several months afterwards, she married a cosmonaut, Andriyan Nikolayev. Their marriage was "probably useful for politics and science", wrote General Kamanin.

In 1964 she gave birth to a daughter Yelena. The couple later divorced and Tereshkova remarried.

After occupying various honorific roles during the Soviet period, at 76 Tereshkova is a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party.

But the adventurous spirit remains: she said this month that she would be "ready" to fly to Mars, even if it were a one-way trip.

First woman in space ready for 'one-way flight to Mars'

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is seen during a training session aboard a Vostok spacecraft simulator on January 17, 1964.

Tereshkova, the first woman to go to space, said on Friday she was ready to score another coup and fly to Mars, even if it would be just a one-way trip.

Russia's Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to go to space, said on Friday she was ready to score another coup and fly to Mars, even if it would be just a one-way trip.

"Mars is my favourite planet," the 76-year old told a news conference in Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star City) outside Moscow, home to a cosmonaut training centre.

Tereshkova, who became a national heroine at the tender age of 26 when she made a solo space flight in 1963, said she had been part of the group who studied the possibility of going to the Red Planet.

"But we know the human limits and for us this remains a dream. Most likely the first flight will be one way. But I am ready," she said.

Under the call sign Chaika (Seagull), Tereshkova during her three-day mission circled the Earth 48 times, her flight becoming a major propaganda coup for the Soviet Union.

On June 16, Russia will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Tereshkova's historic flight.

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go to space.

The Legend and Name of Sally Ride Lives on as AGOR ship

Prof Sally Ride

The United States Navy's first academic research ship to be named after a woman will be christened R/V Sally Ride after NASA's first female astronaut to fly in space.

She became the first American woman to enter space in a low Earth orbit in 1983, a full twenty years after the Soviet Union's first woman astronaut Valentina Tereshkova.

Dr Sally Ride left NASA in 1987 to work as a Professor at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control and had served on the investigation panels for two space shuttle disasters (Challenger and Columbia)—the only person to serve on both.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Friday (April 12) the next ocean-class Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research (AGOR) ship will be named the R/V Sally Ride.

"As secretary of the Navy, I have the great privilege of naming ships that will represent America with distinction as part of the fleet for many decades to come," Mabus said in a statement revealing the names of seven ships, including the Sally Ride.

"These ships were all named to recognise the hard working people from cities all around our country who have contributed in so many ways to our Navy and Marine Corps team."

Mabus named the future R/V Sally Ride in memory of the astronaut, who also served as a professor, scientist and innovator at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California in San Diego. Scripps will operate the R/V Sally Ride when it enters the Navy's fleet in 2015.

Dr Sally Ride, 65, died on July 23, 2012, as a result of pancreatic cancer.

The R/V Sally Ride, a Neil Armstrong-class AGOR ship, is the U.S. Navy's first research vessel named after a woman. 

It is named after the late great Prof Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

CREDIT: Department of Defense

Valentina Tereshkova (born 6 March 1937) is a retired Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.

It took NASA and the US Adminstration a further 20 years to finally approve of women astronauts. Until that time they were thought NOT capable of the Right Stuff!

Sally Ride - First US Woman in Space Dies

Sally Ride, who blazed trails into orbit as the first American woman in space, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61.

Ride died at her home in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, said Terry McEntee, a spokeswoman for her company, Sally Ride Science.

She was a private person and the details of her illness were kept to just a few people, she said. Ride rode into space on the shuttle Challenger in 1983 when she was 32.

After her flight, more than 42 other American women flew in space, Nasa said. "Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars," president Barack Obama said.

"People around the world still recognise her name as the first American woman in space, and she took that title seriously even after departing Nasa," Eileen Collins, the first female space shuttle commander, said. "She never sought media attention for herself, but rather focused on doing her normally outstanding job."

When Ride first launched into space, feminist icons such as Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda were at Kennedy Space Centre and many wore T-shirts alluding to the pop song with the refrain of the same name: "Ride, Sally Ride."

Nasa administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said Ride "broke barriers with grace and professionalism - and literally changed the face of America's space programme".

He added: "The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers." Ride was a physicist, writer of five science books for children and president of her own company.

She had also been a professor of physics at the University of California in San Diego. She was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1978, beating out five women to be the first American female in space.

Her first flight came two decades after the Soviets sent a woman into space. "On launch day, there was so much excitement and so much happening around us in crew quarters, even on the way to the launch pad," Ride recalled in a Nasa interview for the 25th anniversary of her flight in 2008.

"I didn't really think about it that much at the time - but I came to appreciate what an honour it was to be selected to be the first to get a chance to go into space."

Ride flew in space twice, both times on Challenger in 1983 and in 1984, logging 343 hours in space. A third flight was cancelled when Challenger exploded in 1986.

She was on the commission investigating that accident and later served on the panel for the 2003 Columbia shuttle accident, the only person on both boards. She also was on the president's committee of science advisers.

Nasa GRAIL Captures Moon's Far Side [VIDEO]

Nasa has captured its first unique view of the moon's far side with its lunar spacecraft Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL).

In the Nasa video, which runs for around 30 seconds, the north pole of the moon is clearly seen. Also visible is Mare Orientale, a vast impact basin which looks like a target ring in the bull's eye; it is believed to be over three billion years old and spans about 950 km.

The video also shows the Drygalski crater with a distinctive star-shaped formation in the middle. It is a central peak which was created many billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid impact and covers around 149 km.

According to Nasa scientists, the video was taken by Grail which comprises two identical spacecraft, recently named Ebb and Flow, each of which is equipped with a MoonKAM. The images were taken as part of a test of Ebb's Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students (MoonKAM). It will be used by students nationwide to select lunar images for study.

MoonKAM is a programme organised by Nasa which gives a chance to students to learn more about the moon. Tens of thousands from fifth to eighth grade students will select target areas on the lunar surface and send requests to the MoonKAM Mission Operations Center (MOC).

Photos of the target areas will be sent back by the GRAIL satellites and made available in the images section of the website. Students will use the images to study lunar features such as craters, highlands, and maria while also learning about future landing sites.

The programme is led by Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, and her team at Sally Ride Science in collaboration with undergraduate students at the University of California, San Diego.

The MoonKAM mission will begin in 2012 when Grail satellites are in orbit around the Moon and the dedicated MoonKAM cameras are activated. The mission will last approximately 80 days.

"The quality of the video is excellent and should energise our MoonKAM students as they prepare to explore the moon," said Maria Zuber, Grail principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

"We have had great response from schools around the country; more than 2,500 signed up to participate so far," said Sally Ride, astronaut from the Nasa.

"In mid-March, the first pictures of the moon will be taken by students using MoonKAM. I expect this will excite many students about possible careers in science and engineering."

Mae Jemison: NASA's First African-American Woman in Space

Mae Carol Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama, the youngest child of Charlie Jemison and Dorothy Green.

Her father was a maintenance supervisor for a charity organization, and her mother worked most of her career as an elementary school teacher of English and math at the Beethoven School in Chicago.

The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was three years old, to take advantage of better educational opportunities there.

Jemison says that as a young girl growing up in Chicago she always assumed she would get into space. "I thought, by now, we'd be going into space like you were going to work."

She said it was easier to apply to be a shuttle astronaut, "rather than waiting around in a cornfield, waiting for ET to pick me up or something."

As a child growing up, Jemison learned to make connections to science by studying nature. "It sounds a little gross, but I was fascinated with pus," Jemison said.

Once when a splinter infected her thumb as a little girl, Jemison's mother turned it into a learning experience. She ended up doing a whole project about pus.

Jemison wouldn't let anyone dissuade her from pursuing a career in science. "In kindergarten, my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I told her a scientist," Jemison says.

"She said, 'Don't you mean a nurse?' Now, there's nothing wrong with being a nurse, but that's not what I wanted to be."

Jemison says she was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. but to her King's dream wasn't an elusive fantasy but a call to action. "Too often people paint him like Santa -- smiley and inoffensive," says Jemison. "But when I think of Martin Luther King, I think of attitude, audacity, and bravery."

Jemison thinks the civil rights movement was all about breaking down the barriers to human potential. "The best way to make dreams come true is to wake up," says Jemison.

Read more about Mae Jemison at Wikipedia

Still working hard for young people and encouraging them to take up challenges and follow their aspirations. She is seen here, at JPL, with actors from Hollywood.

Mae Jemison (second from the right) in JPL with producer, actors and crew of the Hollywood film 'Redtails', a film about the advenntures of the first African-American air force squadron in WWII.

NASA The Right Stuff: Sally Ride

18 June 1983: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman, and youngest astronaut, in space, 20 years after the first Russian woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova.

Sally later highlighted the American bias against women scientists and mission active astronauts. She became a great advocate for girls entering science and encouraged them to go for their goals, no matter what obstacles stood in the way.

Dr Sally Ride - America's first woman in space

Dr Sally Ride - America's first woman in space has set her sights on a new frontier - making science cool for kids. Dr Sally Ride's particular focus is to get more girls to stick with science and pursue it as a career.

The National Science Foundation said women represent 46% of the workforce but only hold 25% of the jobs in science, engineering and technology.

"I want to right this wrong and have made this the focus of my life at this stage," Dr Ride said.
"Females are 50% of the population and we cannot afford not to tap into that group of people to the fullest extent possible.

"In this country we don't put the priority on math and science education and it's incredible because our society depends on it so much. We are not raising the next generation of scientists and engineers," said Dr Ride.

Making science fun
The root of the problem is seen as centring around a number of prevailing stereotypes that seem to sway females when they are in the 5th and 6th grades, around 10 to 12 years old.

The industry does not have the right image, the subject is seen as too hard and young girls cannot relate to it in terms of their future.

Some of these issues were aired this week in Silicon Valley at the first of a series of round table discussions organised by Dr Ride that included female entrepreneurs, high tech companies and organisations promoting female education.

Campaigners say youngsters need visible role models to emulate
"We are failing in the way we educate. We don't teach in a way that engages students," said Judy Estrin who is chief executive officer of tech consultancy Jlabs and a former chief technology officer for Cisco.

"Parents also need to step up and think about encouraging their children to pursue the subject, not through threat or force but by exposing them to fun experiences like museums and field trips," said Ms Estrin.

A study by the silicon chip giant Intel showed that parents are more willing to talk to their children about drugs than math and science.

Others in the education system believe making the subject relevant to students is key.

"As a scientist and an educator we really do have to step up our game," said Shelley Cargill, assistant professor of biological science at San Jose State University.

If you are a parent, you know that at a certain age the favourite question of every child is 'Why?'

"We need to make science relevant to every day life and make it exciting. It's not just about the geeky nerd, its about chemical engineers discovering compounds to make new and safe cosmetics or the newest synthetic materials for the catwalk."

'there was a growing need for more positive role models for children'

"Kids don't see this subject as cool because unlike music or movies there is no one out there selling it to them. We need people to stand up and say I am a scientist and this is what I do," said Dr Cargill.

'Life blood'
The issue of engaging students in science, technology, engineering and math has been a long standing one that has had a particular resonance in Silicon Valley, which complains constantly about the lack of graduates with relevant degrees to fuel its workforce.

"Math and science is what Exxon Mobil is all about. We use it every day, 365 days a year among our 14,000 engineers and scientists," said Truman Bell, Exxon's senior programme officer for education and diversity.

Dr Ride made history in 1983 on the Space Shuttle Challenger

Dr Ride said she is equally worried about how young people will function in the world without good maths and science skills. "The world has become a different place and science and technology are becoming basic to our everyday living.

"Kids need these skills if they are going to get a good living wage and become scientifically responsible citizens," said Dr Ride.