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How The Soviets Put a Woman Into Space 20 Years Before The USA
The first women to go to space
In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to leave Earth. At the time, this was seen as a momentous accomplishment for NASA and the United States. But for observers in the Soviet Union, this was old news. Not only was Sally Ride not the first woman to go to space, she wasn’t even close.
In 1963, the Soviets put the first woman into space when Valentina Tereshkova orbited the planet for nearly three full days. The Soviets also put the second woman into space when Svetlana Savitskaya took off on Soyuz T-7. Savitskaya was the first woman to perform a spacewalk and the first woman to go to space twice. (Tereshkova only made one lone trip into orbit.)
So why did it take the United States so long to put a woman into space? Why did they fall behind the Soviets in this area?
The main reason was the way that the United States and the USSR selected their astronauts and cosmonauts.
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