To the Stars and Beyond: Meet Russia's Female Cosmonauts

Only three female Russians have managed to be cosmonauts, whereas 45 female astronauts have come from the US, two from Canada, two from Japan, two from China and 1 each from Great Britain, France, and South Korea.

Valentina Tereshkova became the first female astronaut in the world. Svetlana Savitskaya went into orbit twice and became the first woman in the world to perform a spacewalk. Yelena Kondakova has also made two trips to space and spent 178 days in zero gravity.

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Valentina Tereshkova is the first female astronaut in the world and the only woman to have flown solo into space.

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Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in a simulator of a Vostok spacecraft.

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The crew of the Soyuz T-7: Spacecraft Commander and two-time Hero of the Soviet Union Leonid Popov (right), flight engineer Alexander Serebrov (left) and research engineer Svetlana Savitskaya (centre) training in zero gravity.

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Soviet Cosmonaut and Hero of the Soviet Union Svetlana Savitskaya in outer space during the flight of the Soyuz T-12 spacecraft.

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Soyuz TM-20 flight engineer Elena Kondakova during a training session on the ocean simulator at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.

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The crew of the Soyuz TM-20 spacecraft, consisting of Alexander Viktorenko (right), Elena Kondakova and Valery Polyakov, during the first press conference in Star City following the flight.

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Roscosmos Cosmonaut Elena Serova, a member of the main crew of the Soyuz TMA-14M manned transport spacecraft, during a spacesuit fitting.

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Crew member of International Space Station-41/42 Roscosmos Cosmonaut Elena Serova (right) during a meeting at Chkalovsky Airport after returning to Earth on board the descent vehicle of the Soyuz TMA-14M manned spacecraft.

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