Jumpsuits & Teleporters

My favorite comic book artist (besides Jamie Hewlett) is drawing female astronauts. These are all by Philip Bond. Bond worked on many Vertigo comics titles including Kill Your Boyfriend, The Invisibles, Hellblazer, Deadenders, Shade the Changing Man, etc. He was also part of Deadline magazine and collaborated on Tank Girl too. I hope to eventually own one of his comic pages.

Valentina Tereshkova orbited the Earth 48 times during her three day spaceflight in Vostok 6 in 1963. First woman in space!

Svetlana Savitskayabecame the second woman in space when she flew the Soyuz T-7 to the Salyut 7 space station in 1984. First woman to perform a spacewalk!

The third woman in space, and the first American woman in space. Sally Ride rode the Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-7 mission in 1983.

Delta Tau Delta sweetheart Judith Resnik became the fourth female astronaut when she flew as mission specialist aboard the maiden voyage of the Shuttle Discovery in 1984. Judith was killed during the launch of her second spaceflight aboard the Shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Kathryn Sullivan flew alongside Sally Ride aboard Shuttle Challenger mission STS 41-G in 1984. Fifth woman in space!

Metallocarbonane enthusiast Anna Fisher flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-51-A in November 1984. Fisher became the sixth woman in space. Bonus: first mother in space!

Margaret Rhea Seddon flew as mission specialist aboard Shuttle Discovery flight STS-51-D in 1985, the first of her three spaceflights. Tennessee native and seventh woman in space!

Born in Shanghai to missionary parents, Shannon Lucid became the eighth woman in space when she flew aboard the Shuttle Discovery mission STS-51-G in 1985. Shannon made four more spaceflights including the 1989 Atlantis mission to launch the Galileo probe to Jupiter, and a stay aboard the Russian Mir station saw her break the record for the longest time spent in orbit by a woman. 188 days in space!

Bonnie Dunbar served as mission specialist on Shuttle Challenger’s STS-61-A flight in 1985, becoming the ninth woman in space. Bonnie flew on a total of five shuttle missions and is now president of the Museum Of Flight in Seattle.

Mary Cleave became the tenth woman in space when she flew aboard Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-61-B in 1985.

Ellen Shulman Baker flew aboard Shuttle Atlantis mission STS-34 in 1989, which deployed the Galileo probe to Jupiter. New York Queens Zoo’s resident bald eagles Mel and Claire are named after Ellen’s parents. Eleventh woman in space!