International Women’s Day – Space Pioneers

Scrolling through Twitter on 8 March can be a life affirming experience. It is positively uplifting to see so many people and institutions celebrating the contribution women make to the world. For me it always reminds me of the incredible female space pioneers that have helped push the boundaries of exploration.

In a recent blog post by my colleague Tamela Maciel, she highlighted the Mercury 13 and the fact that women make just as good (if not sometimes much better) astronaut candidates as men. This was never more true than with the first women in space – Valentina Tereshkova. Space travel is often about firsts, and few space firsts have been more significant than Tereshkova’s flight in 1963. Tereshkova became the Soviet Union’s – and the world’s – first woman to travel into space twenty years before America sent their own female astronaut.

Tereshkova’s flight is connected to one of my favourite objects from the National Space Centre’s Collection. On International Women’s Day I can’t help but take a few moments out to go and take a look at it on display in our Soyuz Lounge. This authorised personnel armband was worn by a member of the ground crew as Tereshkova blasted into space. The largely faded gold Cyrillic inscription in the centre of the armband reads ‘ДЕЖУРНЫЙ’ and translates to ‘Person on Duty’, indicating that the wearer was a member of authorised personnel in a restricted zone.

Objects have the power to connect us to historical events and people. They help us to understand the world that we live in and where we have come from. When I look at the armband, what immediately strikes me is how its unknown wearer clearly recognised the significance of Tereshkova’s flight. Whoever they were, they were aware that they were witnessing History with a capital H. After the flight, they sought out various luminaries of the Soviet space programme – including both Tereshkova and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space – asking them to sign it. Many years later, we are fortunate to display an object worn during one of the most significant moments in space history, signed by some of the most significant women and men from the early days of space travel.

Valentina Tereshkova performed admirably on her mission, but some reports felt that her flight proved women less capable than men. Senior members of the Soviet space programme cancelled any future flights by women indefinitely, although the reason given was a fear of risking women’s lives. It was only when Sally Ride was preparing to become America’s first female astronaut that Russia announced that they would launch their second, Svetlana Savitskaya. Savitskaya launched into space just under a year before Sally Ride, in July 1982 – 19 years after Tereshkova. Savitskaya went on to become the first female spacewalker on her second spaceflight two years later. One sour note came as upon her arrival at the Salyut 7 space station, Savitskaya was met by a male crew member presenting her with an apron as a gift. To Savitskaya’s credit, her performance and attitude won over her colleagues – showing once again that space travel is about the person not the gender.

Here in the UK we have our own notable first. Our first space traveller is also the first women to fly in space that wasn’t either American or Russian. Helen Sharman is a great friend of the National Space Centre, and we are in the lucky position of being able to showcase some of the objects from her historic flight. Alongside her blue PK-14 Flightsuit, worn on the Mir space station, we also have the Kazbek Couch that she sat in inside her Soyuz spacecraft. Sharman’s eight-day spaceflight, as part of Project Juno in 1991, is an incredible story of a woman who set no limits on what she could achieve. Driving home from work one day, Sharman heard an advert on the radio that said, ‘astronauts wanted, no experience necessary’. From over 12,000 applicants, she was selected to become Britain’s first person in space. Helen Sharman remains an inspiration for both women and men as to what hard work can achieve when you don’t set limitations on yourself.

International Women’s Day is a great way of marking female achievements. It is a day to celebrate equality and the rights of all. In terms of the future of space travel we can think in a grander way – as we all share a planet, regardless of age, race, gender, or sexual orientation. One day we hope to represent Earth as one collective species, as we seek to explore a universe as diverse as those of us that inhabit this planet.

And for those of you asking, International Men’s Day is on 19 November!