Oceanographer Kathryn Sullivan researched remote sensing prior to joining NASA and becoming the first woman to perform a spacewalk during Challenger's 1984 mission. Selected for her skill as a parachutist, the Soviet Union's first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into space in 1963 on board the Vostok 6.
The first American woman to fly in space, physicist Sally Ride, helped to develop the robotic arm used to put satellites into orbit during Space Shuttle Challenger's 1983 mission.