Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya

February 3, 1999

Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to walk in space. She was born on the 8th of August in 1948 in Moscow, Russia. She became the second woman in space in 1982, seven months before Sally Ride became the first American female astronaut. 

Svetlana Savitskaya's father was the Deputy Commander of the Soviet Air Defenses. Svetlana took music, English, and swimming. She liked reading, figure skating, running, and parachute training. 

When she was 17, she had jumped 450 times. When she was 18, she began pilot training and entered the Moscow Aviation Institute. When she was 20, she soloed in a YaK-18 jet. 

She became a world champion member of the Russian Aerobatics Team. By 1972, she was a flying trainer at the Central Technical Flying School of the USSR. 

At age 28, she became a test pilot for the Yakovlev design bureau. 

She was selected as a cosmonaut in 1980.

She became the second woman in space in 19 August 1982 on the Soyuz T-7, orbiting for eight days. 

She also went into space twice in 1984, once in 1986, and once in 1992, on different Soyuz missions, for a total of 20 days in space. 

She became a Member of Parliament in 1989.