In a memorable resolution passed in 2011, the United Nations (UN) declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight “to celebrate each year the beginning of the space era for mankind.”

April 12, 1961, was the date of the first human space flight, carried out by Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen. This historic event opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity, the UN states on its website.

Since Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space on June 18, 1983, many female astronauts have been on space shuttle missions.

According to NASA, as of March 2022, 75 women have flown in space, including cosmonauts, astronauts, payload specialists, and space station participants. The first woman in space was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who flew on Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963.

For Women's History Month 2022, NASA published a list of the most recent female station crew members aboard the International Space Station. They include Kayla Barron, who launched with the SpaceX Crew-3 mission on Nov. 10, 2021; Megan McArthur on Expedition 65, which launched on April 21, 2021, and splashed down on Nov. 8, 2021; and Shannon Walker, who launched to the space station aboard a SpaceX Dragon as part of the first crew under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Other astronauts on NASA's list included Kate Rubins, Jessica Meir, Christina Koch, Anne McClain, Serena Auñón-Chancellor, and Peggy Whitson, who holds the U.S. record for cumulative time in space – 665 days, and the record for the most spacewalk time for female space travelers.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is the only person ever to have run a marathon while in space. Catherine (Cady) Coleman logged more than 4,330 total hours in space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia and the space station. Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Shannon Walker were part of the first space station crew with more than one woman.

Former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison became the first Black woman in space in 1992, and Shannon Lucid held the record for the most flight hours in orbit by any woman.

Former NASA astronaut Susan Helms was the first female crew member aboard the space station, a member of Expedition 2 from March to Aug. 2001. Helms shares the record for the longest single spacewalk, totaling 8 hours 56 minutes, with fellow NASA astronaut Jim Voss.

The most women in space at one time (four) happened in 2010 when the space shuttle Discovery visited the space station for the STS-131 mission. Discovery’s crew of seven included former NASA astronauts Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger and Stephanie Wilson and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Naoko Yamazaki. The space station crew of six included NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson.

Expedition 24 marked a first with two women, NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, assigned to a space station mission from April to Sept. 2010.