Women in space
From top left to right: Caroline Herschel, Katherine Johnson, Samantha Cristoforetti, From bottom left to right: Helen Sharman, Claudie Haigneré, Valentina Tereshkova.
11 February 2025
Many famous scientists have discovered fascinating things about space. Did you know that a huge number of them were women? They have done amazing things like solving tricky problems, building cool inventions and inspiring people to dream about the stars and beyond. From looking at planets through telescopes to discovering new stars and flying into space, women have been an important part of space exploration!
A long time ago, women like Caroline Herschel, Katherine Johnson and Valentina Tereshkova did incredible things to help us understand the space that we are in. In 1963, Valentina became the first woman to fly into space. She was only 26 years old when she lifted off with Vostok 6 spacecraft! Her bravery showed other women that they could explore space too. Since then, 75 incredible women, like the British Astronaut, Helen Sharman, and French and Italian ESA Astronauts, Claudie Haigneré, and Samantha Cristoforetti, have travelled beyond Earth. Their stories inspire people all around the world to dream about becoming engineers, scientists, and astronauts!
Women also changed the way we think about the universe. Jocelyn Bell Burnell found something never seen before, tiny stars that spin super-fast, like a light house! She called them pulsars, for their pulsating behaviour. Even though she made this discovery herself, while still being a student, the Nobel Prize for her work was given to her male colleagues instead of her. But Jocelyn didn't let that stop her, she kept going and inspired lots of women to study space science too! Her story shows how important it is not to give up, even when things are tricky.
From top left to right: Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Simoneta Cheli, Sophie Adenot. From bottom left to right: Annie Jump Canon, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir and Rosemary Coogan.
Women are doing incredible research and flying to space, but they are also the important engineers, coders, and scientists that we need to make missions successful. For example, more than 100 years ago, there was a group of women called 'The Harvard Computers'. They worked on studying and recording the features of stars before we had machines to do the calculations. One of them, Annie Jump Cannon, looked at hundreds of thousands of stars and created a way to organise them that we still use today! This was back when computers were people who made calculations – they were not robots, they were very clever women!
Jumping to today, we have thousands of women working in the space sector and while it’s not yet balanced, ESA is working to include and realise more women in space. There are many stories of women working in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) field at ESA, who are advancing space science – from Simonetta Cheli, the Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programme, who helps manage missions that study our planet from space, to young women trainees who help and support ESA missions.
The journey for women in space is just beginning. With each of their space missions, female astronauts inspire new people to dream big, showing everyone that they too can be part of humanity’s greatest adventures. The Artemis program wants to land the first women on the Moon! And in 2019, two NASA Astronauts, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, did the first all-women spacewalk. They stepped outside the International Space Station to fix its power system, showing that women are a big part of every step of space exploration.
The future of space exploration is bright, and more women will be part of this adventure! ESA recently introduced the 17 members of the new astronaut class, with half of them being incredible women who were chosen to lead the way for science in Europe and in Space!
Sophie Adenot, from France, is one of these astronauts and has been selected for her first mission to the International Space Station in 2026. Sophie is a talented helicopter pilot and engineer with over 3000 hours of flight time who will follow in the footsteps of other female space pioneers. She is joined by Rosemary Coogan, an astronomer and physicist from the UK who has worked on missions like Euclid and the James Webb Space Telescope. Meganne Christian from the UK, Anthea Comellini from Italy, Sara García Alonso from Spain, Carmen Possnig from Austria, Amelie Schoenenwald from Germany and Nicola Winter from Germany are all members of the astronaut reserve and they will start basic training if more help is needed for a mission. Showing that even more women will be ready to step up and explore beyond our planet.
One day, maybe you will be the one designing rockets, discovering new planets, or even walking on the Moon! Like the first French woman in space, Claudie Haigneré, once said: “Dare!” That means, be brave, follow your dreams and believe in yourself and what your capable of doing. The stars are waiting for you, reach for them!
