Talk:List of women astronauts

Images
Can anyone find a usable image of Helen Sharman? RandomCritic (talk) 21:01, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Missing Astronaut
Christa McAuliffe isn't listed; she died in the Challenger disaster in 1986. She was going to be the first educator astronaut and trained with Barbara Morgan. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.165.142.97 (talk) 20:35, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

. Since McAuliffe never travelled into space, she could never be number eleven. Clifton Williams would have been the 44th man in space (as his successor Alan Bean became), if he hadn't died. You will not se a list of space travellers on Wikipedia with astronaut Williams as number 44, the same goes for McAuliffe. No one questions McAuliffe's inclusion in this article, just her number 11 status. --Regards, Necessary Evil (talk) 19:30, 26 July 2012 (UTC)
 * She's not listed in the "Astronauts with completed or scheduled spaceflights" section, but in the following one. However, this is wrong. Her flight, unfortunately, didn't complete. Still, it was scheduled, and it started, so I am adding her in the correct section.
 * --Lou Crazy (talk) 13:19, 24 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Why is McAuliffe number 11? She never flew in space, as the other did. The "scheduled flights" in the headline refers to women with upcoming (future) space flights. --Regards, Necessary Evil (talk) 16:51, 24 July 2012 (UTC)
 * The headline doesn't say "future". Unlike people scheduled for a future flight which might be cancelled, her flight started, and she shared the fate of other crew members. In other astronaut lists, you will also find people astronaut Clifton Williams, who never went to space. I will strongly oppose any proposal to remove Williams from any such list, and for the same reason I think Christa McAuliffe should be here.
 * --Lou Crazy (talk) 11:21, 26 July 2012 (UTC)
 * You're missing the point. Read this article's introduction: "”The following is a list of women who have travelled into space, sorted by date of first flight”"
 * OK Lou Crazy, since you haven't replied, I must assume that you concur. McAuliffe is off the chronological list. --Regards, Necessary Evil (talk) 20:01, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I would agree McAuliffe should be on the secondary list. As you pointed out, her flight WAS launched...not her fault that it didn't make it above the Karman Line and into space. However, it can be argued that she reached the "edge of space," as the crew cabin peaked around 70,000 feet...5-7,000 feet above Armstrong's Limit (where you can no longer survive without a pressure suit). I am glad she's mentioned in an "other" list, even if she did not make it into actual space. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.118.247.231 (talk) 16:28, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Removing Lisa Nowak comment
I feel strongly that mention of Nowak's personal actions should be outside the scope of this top table (i.e. the table for women who achieved space flight). Even the fact that Nowak was ultimately let go by NASA because of her behavior doesn't seem relevant here; there are a number of other astronauts on this page who similarly only flew once, or who never saw flight time, before leaving NASA's astronaut program for one reason or another, and those reasons are not all given. The "comment" section of the top table should really be limited to special accomplishments, "firsts," or other significant events related directly to specific space flight activities. As is, Nowak's "comment" is the only one that falls outside of this scope. Girona7 (talk) 03:12, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Yelena Dobrokvashina
Some Yelena Dobrokvashina info, if anyone wants to write an article... http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Near-cosmonaut_outlines_why_few_women_in_Russias_space_program_999.html -- 65.94.79.6 (talk) 20:15, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Yvonne Cagle
How come she's listed as retired? According to NASA's web page, she's one of the management astronauts. I get why she's not on the chronological list, but all the sources I've looked at don't list her as retired. Before I made any changes, I wanted to ask around here to see if someone had a reasoning for this. Spacegeek2015 (talk) 16:39, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Shouldn't this be "female astronauts and cosmonauts?
I don't have a lot of experience in Wikipedia (mostly I edit grammar), so I don't know the procedure for requesting a title change. But shouldn't the title of this page be "List of female astronauts and cosmonauts? Especially given that the first two females in space were Russian?  (I get it that the word "astronaut" is first, since there have been only 4 female cosmonauts and over forty female astronauts from the U.S. alone.)

>>No. I think female spacefarers is a suitable name because then its not restricted to just astronauts and cosmonauts.

Sorting
I preferred the chronological sorting over the alphabetical one. Of course it would be helpful to use some tool (like Template:Sortname?) to make the table sortable for last name, but I think the chronological order should be standard. As of today, the list offers no way to find out who was first, second, third, .... etc. Any other opinions? --User:Steffen Löwe Gera (talk) 22:42, 24 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes,, the list should be chronological. Should be easy to do given some time, and since nobody has objected I think it's fine to just go ahead and do it. Are you offering to do the sorting (I hope), or I'll have to get to it at some point. Thanks for bringing the change forward. Randy Kryn (talk) 20:17, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * If the date of their first trip were added to the table as a separate column (rather than being included as parenthetical date in the "Missions" column), the table could be sorted at will by the reader. 173.15.229.22 (talk) 00:10, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

Beth Moses
Beth Moses is listed as #63, but she did not reach space according to the international definition (100 km), only by the US definition (50 miles). If she is included then the total number of astronauts is wrong - 565 total astronauts (as of December 2019) only counts those who have flown above 100 km. Either way it needs clarifying. Hiram Waffles (talk) 08:30, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

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Requested move 15 February 2022

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Moved to List of female astronauts. There's broad consensus that this is substantially best title and most consistent with similar articles. Any previous procedural blunders are not particularly relevant. "Spacefarers" has never enjoyed a broad consensus, and should anyone disagree they should propose it in a RM. No such user (talk) 22:21, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

List of female Astronauts → List of female astronauts – shouldn't be capitalized   D r e a m Focus  19:08, 15 February 2022 (UTC) The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Support Although I'm a little confused -- it looks like the nominator just moved this page here from its former name, List of female spacefarers. I don't think the capitalization question is at all controversial, but the first one may be.--Yaksar (let's chat) 19:54, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I guess to be more specific: Speedy move as uncontroversial OR Revert to List of female spacefarers and start a new discussion for this move--Yaksar (let's chat) 19:56, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
 * The article is in Category:Women astronauts. All the women on this list seem to be in that category.  This is the proper name.  Someone just changed it to spacefarers without any discussion or valid reason, so I moved it back to its original name, or tried to, but capitalization error.  All the other categories and lists use the term astronaut, not spacefarers.   D r e a m Focus  21:29, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Support. It's not a proper noun so it shouldn't be capitalized. This seems pretty uncontroversial to me. Rreagan007 (talk) 22:10, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Support per above and speedy close. HandsomeFella (talk) 22:24, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Support: standard. Pam  D  09:03, 16 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Speedy move or revert per Yaksar, the capitalization isn't controversial but the previous move could be.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 10:31, 16 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Support this move, but revert the previous; this list includes cosmonauts and taikonauts. BilledMammal (talk) 22:14, 16 February 2022 (UTC)
 * List of Jewish astronauts starts off with a cosmonaut. List of Asian astronauts has people from China and elsewhere on it.  Different nations have a different word for astronauts.  Category:Lists of astronauts and Lists of astronauts use the word astronaut most of the time.  The Wikipedia article for Astronaut reads "Astronaut" technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality or allegiance;.   D r e a m Focus  22:55, 16 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I concur with this. "Astronaut" is the general English word for someone who has flown in space. "Cosmonauts" and "taikonauts" all still fall under the general term "astronauts". Rreagan007 (talk) 02:04, 17 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Procedural support I am not sure this makes sense as a list article at all, but consensus at AFD would obviously keep this article, so that's a moot point. The status quo ante is "spacefarers", but "astronauts" is an improvement.  This isn't 1975, a distinction between "astronaut" and "cosmonaut" isn't relevant. User:力 (powera,  π,  ν ) 02:16, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

? Why birth and death dates and not ordered by date of first flight
Seems like date of first flight should be a prominent charted item instead of life dates. Randy Kryn (talk) 20:54, 15 February 2022 (UTC)


 * The second column is their name and age, the last column shows the date of first flight. It already is ordered by the date of first flight. -Vipz (talk) 23:09, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

Why is wally funk on this list?
Funk isnt an astronaut .. As Per a July 20 order by the FAA, titled the "FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program," a new clause states that in order to qualify as an astronaut, space explorers must have "demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety."

funk has never been an astronaut. its offensive putting her on the same list as real astronauts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.96.213.144 (talk) 09:22, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

70 vs 73
I have tried to updated the total number of astronauts following the web used as reference in the article : Astronaut/Cosmonaut Statistics-More. The problem is that the female total in the source is 70 instead of 73 (as in our table). Maybe this is related to FAI vs USAF definition of space travel, as the source doesn't disambiguate it.

I'll leave 73 in the lead and 70 in the text, till somebody could fix it. Alexcalamaro (talk) 05:05, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

Sorting of the actual list
Having the actual list in a collapsible window seems like a bad idea as it's easy to gloss over, but I'd like to hear what other people think. Lucksash (talk) 21:52, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

Yumi Matsutoya
a space sleuth speculates that yumi matsutoya never actually intended to fly on soyuz ms-20, but in fact her name was used as a ruse to keep hidden the identity of the passenger yusaku maezawa, who shares the same initials: 135.180.194.177 (talk) 07:17, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
 * https://spacesleuth2.blogspot.com/2021/05/mystery-of-missing-space-tourists.html

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Update requested
The List of Female Astronauts need to be expanded to present date or at least to the end of 2022. Although, there is continued discussions on who's name is entered if not crossing the Karmen Line, these women have.

NO	NAME 	              COUNTRY 	    RECORDS 	                MISSION	              DATE OF FLIGHT 72	Kayla Barron 	       USA		                              SpaceX Crew 3 	      November 10, 2021 73	Laura Shepard Churchly	USA	 Alan Shepard's Daughter 	      Blue Origin NS-19	      December 11, 2021 74	Sharon Hagle 	       USA	  1st Married Couple on CSV 	  Blue Origin NS-20 	  March 31, 2022 75	Jessica Watkins 	   USA	  lst Black women	              SpaceX Crew 4	          April 27, 2022 76	Katya Echazarreta 	  Mexico  1st Mexian born to go to space  Blue Origin NS-21	      June 4, 2022 77	Vanessa O'Brien 	 USA/UK  1st Women to meet extremes 	  Blue Origin NS-22 	  August 4, 2022 78	Sara Sabry 	         Egypt   1st Egyptian's analog Astronaut Blue Origin NS-22 	  August 4, 2022 79	Nicole Aunapu Mann 	  USA	  1st Native American 	          SpaceX Crew 5     	  October 5, 2022 80	Anna Kikina	        Russia   1st Russian to fly on Dragon	  SpaceX Crew 5	          October 5, 2022  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.153.221.234 (talk) 17:36, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

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Inclusion of Women in NASA Astronaut Class of 2021 (This is really suggested edits, not a new topic.)
Although they are still candidates (2023), they will soon be elevated to full status as astronauts. Their names are Nichole Ayers, Christina Birch, Deniz Burnham, and Jessica Wittner. As the current list includes candidates from the ESA class of 2022, for completeness it should also include the US astronaut candidates as of now (July 2023) under the heading Other Astronauts and Astronaut Candidates. I would list them as #19, 20, 21, and 22 before starting the list of ESA Class of 2022 women.

At the top under the History heading, there should be a note that with the advent of commercial spaceflight companies, women who are not professional career astronauts with a national space agency have become able to fly in space. They may be called commercial astronauts or space travelers but they do not have the same training and experience as career astronauts (or what some people call "real" astronauts). The title of this artivcle might even be changed to List of Women Astronauts and Space Travelers, for clarification. Perhaps women like Anousheh Ansari, Beth Moses, Sirisha Bandla, Wally Funk, et al. should have an asterisk to indicate that they are commercial spaceflight travelers/private citizens, not professional astronauts. This group is likely to continue to grow fairly rapidly. However, be careful to distinguish the commercial flyers from the actual astronauts and cosmonauts who are flying on SpaceX and Axiom (Barron, Watkins, Mann, Whitson, Kikina, and Barnawi thus far) from national space agencies, not as private citizens.

Please note that US astronaut Peggy Whitson flew as commander of Axiom-2 to the ISS, May 21-31, 2023. Please add that flight to her entry in line 38. She was on the same flight as Rayyanah Barnawi (line 77) but had already flown with for NASA three times as shown in line 38/ ValerieNeal (talk) 01:01, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

Commercial or Private Space Travelers
I suggest a new paragraph under the History heading, something like this:

With the advent of companies that sell spaceflights to commercial customers and private citizens, the number of women is space is increasing. Space travelers who pay for a flight opportunity or are chosen by a paying entity are called commercial astronauts, commercial space travelers, or spaceflight participants. They are not professional astronauts employed by a national space agency. The first woman in this category was Anousheh Ansari who bought her flight on a Russian Soyuz to the International Space Station in 2006. SpaceX began to offer commercial crewed orbital flights in 2020, followed by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic in 2021 offering short suborbital flights, and Axiom going orbital in 2023. Women who have flown with these companies typically have a passion for spaceflight and space exploration but have not made it their career. In the following list, they are identified by an asterisk *.

Identify with an * Ansari (line 44), So-Yeon (line 49), Moses (line 63), Bandla (line 66), Funk (line 67), Proctor (line 68), Arceneaux (line 69), Peresild (line 70), Powers (line 71), O'Brien (line 74), and others that should be fit into proper chronologcial order: Laura Shepard Churchly, Sharon Hagle, Katya Echazarreta, and Sara Sabry.

Perhaps a way to resolve the von Karman line dispute is to lable Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights as suborbital. That is the rkey difference with SpaceX and Axiom, both orbital carriers. I have addressed that in the suggested paragraph above. ValerieNeal (talk) 04:27, 24 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Please pardon a few typos in my two messages above. Of course, I didn't see them before I logged out.
 * Correct words are article, flown for NASA, women in space, and key difference.
 * Notice that both of my recommendations, if adopted, will change the total count of women in space thus far. An update at the end of December 2023 would be worthwhile. If we want this list to stay current, an update every 6 months at a minimum makes sense to me. ValerieNeal (talk) 04:35, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

new entry
I'm not up for figuring out the syntax of how to add new entries to tables, but apparently Sharon Hagle went into space on New Shepard (a press release from her university, a paywalled news article, entry on a list at Observer.com. Leaving aside general notability,. does everyone who was on New Shepard meet criteria to be on this list? DS (talk) 20:48, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

List of Women Astronauts in space
Hello, my name is Sharon Hagle. I flew on Blue Origin NS-20 on March 31, 2022 with my husband Marc Hagle and became the first married couple to launch into space on a commercial space vehicle. Officially, I became the 73 women to launch. Please add me to the list as I have earned a seat at the table. Thank you very much for your prompt attention in advance. Most sincerely, Sharon Spacekids Global (talk) 18:25, 23 October 2023 (UTC)


 * ✅ - Added. - Fuzheado &#124; Talk 13:46, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Recent addition
i have never tried editing a Wikipedia article and I'm too tired to figure it out with all the proper sourcing, but can someone please add Kellie Gerardi to this list? She went up earlier this month and deserves to me on here 95.97.111.134 (talk) 16:41, 20 November 2023 (UTC)


 * To be**** on here 95.97.111.134 (talk) 16:41, 20 November 2023 (UTC)