1959 - Jerrie Cobb selected for testing for the Mercury astronaut training program
1962 - Though Jerrie Cobb and 12 other women (the Mercury 13) passed astronaut admission tests, NASA decides not to select any women. Congressional hearings include testimony by Cobb and others, including Senator Philip Hart, husband of one of the Mercury 13.
1963 - June - Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut from the USSR, becomes the first woman in space
1978 - Six women chosen as astronaut candidates by NASA: Rhea Seddon, Kathryn Sullivan, Judith Resnik, Sally Ride, Anna Fisher and Shannon Lucid
1983 - June - Sally Ride, American astronaut, becomes the first American woman in space
1984 - July - Svetlana Savitskaya, USSR cosmonaut, becomes first woman to walk in space
1984 - October - Kathryn Sullivan, American astronaut, becomes first American woman to walk in space
1984 - August - Anna Fisher becomes the first person to retrieve a malfunctioning satellite, using the orbiter remote manipulator arm
1992 - May - Kathy Thornton, the second woman to walk in space, holds record for longest space walk by a woman as of 2002
1992 - June/July - Bonnie Dunbar and Ellen Baker are among the first American crew to dock with the Russian space station
1992 - September - Mae Jemison becomes first African American woman in space
1993 - April - Ellen Ochoa becomes first Hispanic American woman in space
1994 - July - Chiaki Mukai becomes the first Japanese woman in space
1995 - February - Eileen Collins becomes first woman to pilot a space shuttle
1996 - September - Shannon Lucid returns from her six months on Mir, the Russian space station, with a record for the time in space for women and for Americans -- she is also the first woman to be awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
1998 - May - Nearly 2/3 of the flight control team for STS-95 were women, including the launch commentator, Lisa Malone, the ascent commentator, Eileen Hawley, the flight directory, Linda Harm, and the communicator between crew and mission control, Susan Still
1998 - December - Nancy Currie completes the first task in assembling the International Space Station
1999 - July - Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to command a space shuttle
This timeline © 2002-2009 Jone Johnson Lewis.
