NASA Hired Its First Female Astronauts 38 Years Ago

Thirty-eight years ago this week, NASA announced the names of 35 new astronaut candidates, including the first group of women to officially belong to a new astronaut class. In 1983, Sally Ride (far right) became the first American woman to fly in space — 20 years after Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to orbit the Earth. While officially recognized as the first female members of an astronaut class, these six were not the first female astronaut trainees.