Women at NASA


Women at NASA highlights the scientists, engineers, managers, flight controllers, and astronauts whose work has shaped the United States civil space program from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics era to the present, with their roles and contributions varying significantly over time.
Women entered NACA in the 1920s as technical specialists, including physicist Pearl I. Young, the first woman hired as a professional employee at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1922, and expanded in the 1940s to large pools of "human computers" who performed critical aeronautical and astronautical calculations by hand at Langley and other facilities. Over time those roles widened into engineering, science leadership, flight operations, and spaceflight, culminating in major program firsts and center leadership positions across the agency.
Throughout the 1930s to the present, more women joined the NASA teams not only at Langley Memorial, but at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Glenn Research Center, and other numerous NASA sites throughout the United States. As the space program has grown, women have advanced into many roles, including astronauts.
NASA's first six female astronaut candidates were selected in 1978 at Johnson Space Center, followed by decades of mission milestones and leadership appointments across multiple centers. By the 2010s women led directorates and centers, commanded missions from Mission Control, and were tapped for Artemis lunar crews. In 2020 NASA named its headquarters the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters to honor the agency's first Black female engineer who began her career at Langley Research Center, underscoring the historical arc from "hidden figures" to modern leadership.

History

1920s–1940s

Women joined NACA laboratories as professional staff in the interwar period. Pearl I. Young arrived at Langley in 1922 and later served as Chief Technical Editor, an early example of women in technical leadership. Young was the second female physicist working for the federal government at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory building 1202 in Langley, Virginia. During World War II and the early Cold War, Langley and other sites hired large cohorts of women mathematicians as "computers".
Many, including Dorothy Vaughan, Mary W. Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, advanced into engineering and programming during NASA's transition to electronic computation and the Space Age.

1960s

During the 1960s, women initially worked in support roles as administrators, secretaries, doctors, psychologists, and later as engineers. NASA began actively recruiting women and minorities for the space program during this decade. By the end of the 1960s, NASA had employed thousands of women.
Women such as Mary Shep Burton, Gloria B. Martinez, Cathy Osgood, and Shirley Hunt worked in the computer division, while Sue Erwin, Lois Ransdell, and Maureen Bowen served as secretaries for various members of the Mission and Flight Control teams. Dana Ulery became the first woman engineer hired at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Despite her qualifications, she was classified only as a junior engineer, and for more than seven years, no other woman engineer was hired at JPL. Donna Shirley also worked at JPL as a mission engineer during this period. Dr. Carolyn Huntoon pioneered research into astronaut metabolism and other physiological systems. Margaret Hamilton served as the guidance computer lead programmer for the Apollo program, while Judy Sullivan was the lead biomedical engineer for the Apollo 11 mission.
Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, known as the "Mother of Hubble," led NASA's first space astronomy program. Planetary and space scientists based at NASA centers and JPL, including Marcia Neugebauer, made foundational measurements of the solar wind.
Despite facing significant challenges in establishing themselves within the organization, several women made groundbreaking contributions during this period. Katherine Johnson became one of the most prominent figures in NASA history, advancing through the ranks as a Black woman to become one of the most respected engineers on the Apollo mission. Her success represented a major milestone for both African Americans and women at NASA and served as an inspiration to the general public. Along with Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson performed critical mathematical calculations to verify spacecraft launch computations. These women served as pioneers, paving the way for the growing presence of women at NASA.
However, acceptance of women in the space program was not universal. In 1962, George Low, NASA's Chief of Manned Spaceflight, opposed the inclusion of women, telling Congress that working with women would delay his work. That same year, John F. Kennedy signed the President's Commission on the Status of Women to promote gender equality in the workforce. This eventually led James Webb, NASA's administrator, to create an agency-wide policy directive stating that NASA would provide equal opportunities for all qualified individuals. Despite this policy, no women were selected for the astronaut corps in the 1963, 1965, 1966, or 1967 selections.

1970s

In 1972, NASA began accepting applications from women for astronaut positions for the first time, coinciding with the military's decision to begin accepting women for pilot training programs that would eventually provide pathways to astronaut careers.
In 1977 when actress Nichelle Nichols assisted NASA in attracting female candidates. Nichols' portrayal of Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek had inspired many young women to pursue careers as astronauts. Among those influenced was Dr. Mae Jemison, who would become the first Black woman astronaut in 1992.
Dr. Carolyn Huntoon declined an opportunity to become an astronaut herself in order to serve on the astronaut selection committee. NASA assigned Huntoon to travel throughout the United States, encouraging women to apply for astronaut positions and pursue careers in STEM fields. In 1979, Kathryn Sullivan piloted a NASA WB-57F reconnaissance aircraft to 63,300 feet altitude, setting an unofficial altitude record for American women.
NASA's 1978 astronaut selection included the agency's first six female candidates: Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Anna Fisher, Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and Shannon Lucid.

1980s

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman astronaut to travel to space. More than a year later, Judith Resnik flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery and became the second American woman in space. Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk in 1984. In 1988, Ellen Ochoa joined NASA and became the first Hispanic woman astronaut. Ochoa completed four space shuttle missions aboard Discovery and Atlantis, accumulating nearly 1,000 hours in space. In 1985, Shannon Lucid completed her first spaceflight and by the end of her career had spent 188 days in space. Lucid held the American record for most cumulative days in space until 2002.
In the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster two women died: Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space, and Judith Resnik, the second American woman to fly in space.

1990s

By the 1990s, NASA had expanded its research into the physiological effects of spaceflight on women's bodies. Carolyn Huntoon delivered a keynote address in 1994 at the 2nd Annual Women's Health and Space Luncheon, highlighting NASA's previously unrecognized contributions to women's health research. On February 3, 1995, Colonel Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a U.S. spacecraft. During this period, Shannon Lucid, a flight engineer, completed five space missions and served as chief scientist for NASA at its headquarters in Washington, DC.
In 1999, Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission.

2000s

The 2000s saw a significant increase in women's participation in NASA's planetary missions. Women were increasingly appointed to roles as Co-Investigators and Participating Scientists. The percentage of women in these positions rose from below 10% in the 1990s to approximately 30% by the 2000s, with particular growth in Co-Investigator roles.
The 2003 Columbia disaster claimed the lives of two women astronauts, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, along with the entire STS-107 crew when the shuttle broke apart during reentry on February 1, 2003.
Pamela Melroy completed several missions to the International Space Station aboard the shuttles Discovery and Atlantis. A veteran military pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flight time, Melroy brought extensive aviation experience to her astronaut career. In 2007, Peggy Whitson became the first woman to command the International Space Station. Whitson later became the first woman to serve as Chief of the Astronaut Office and commanded the ISS on two separate occasions. During her time in space, Whitson conducted numerous experiments that advanced space technologies still in use today.
Also in 2007, Barbara Morgan became the first teacher to travel to space. Morgan had originally been selected as the backup candidate for the Teacher in Space program in 1985, when Christa McAuliffe was chosen as the primary candidate. Following McAuliffe's death in the 1986 Challenger accident, Morgan was unable to complete her mission until 2007.

2010s–2020s

By the 2010s and 2020s women regularly held senior leadership posts and set mission records. Ellen Ochoa served as director of Johnson Space Center from 2013 to 2018, becoming the center's first Hispanic director and its second woman to lead the center. On October 18, 2019, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir completed the first all-woman spacewalk. Koch then concluded a 328-day mission on February 6, 2020, the longest single spaceflight by a woman to that date.
In June 2020 the agency named its headquarters for Mary W. Jackson, followed by a public naming ceremony in February 2021. Pamela Melroy was sworn in as Deputy Administrator of NASA in June 2021, and that same month Vanessa Wyche became director of Johnson Space Center, the first Black woman to lead a NASA center. In February 2023 heliophysicist Nicola Fox was selected to lead the Science Mission Directorate as associate administrator. In January 2022 Caltech named planetary scientist Laurie Leshin director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lab's first woman director.
In April 2021 MiMi Aung led the Ingenuity team to the first powered flight on another world, and in February 2021 Swati Mohan served as guidance, navigation, and control operations lead during Mars 2020 entry, descent, and landing. NASA named the initial Artemis Team in December 2020, which included nine women, and in April 2023 assigned Christina Koch to Artemis II.
On October 5, 2022, Nicole Aunapu Mann launched as commander of Crew-5 and became the first Native American woman in space. Loral O'Hara returned on April 6, 2024 after 204 days on the space station. In operations, NASA named Holly Ridings the agency's first female chief flight director in 2018, she moved to Gateway leadership in 2022, and in 2023 the agency selected Emily Nelson as chief flight director.
In 2024 Sunita Williams piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing Starliner during the Crew Flight Test, the first time a woman flew on the first flight of a crewed spacecraft. After NASA decided in August 2024 to return Starliner to Earth uncrewed due to technical issues with the spacecraft's propulsion system and concerns about crew safety, Williams and commander Barry Wilmore remained aboard the station and returned with SpaceX's Crew-9 on March 18, 2025.

Women in Space Program

The Mercury 13 program marked an early attempt to include women in U.S. space programs, though the original Mercury Seven astronauts selected for NASA's first human spaceflight program were all men. Randy Lovelace and Don Flickinger, who were involved in the selection process, considered including women in this project. Lovelace believed that women could perform the same tasks in space as men. In 1960, Lovelace and Flickinger met Jerrie Cobb, who played a major role in recruiting and testing women for the program.
The Women in Space Program was a revived version of the Women in Space Earliest program that had been cancelled in November 1959. Like the program for men, this required candidate testing. However, the testing parameters were modified to accommodate women. In the screening phase, men were required to be degree-holding jet pilots who had attended military test pilot school and had a minimum of 1,500 hours of flying time. Since women were excluded from these opportunities, the screening criteria shifted to women with commercial pilot licenses, particularly those who served as flight instructors. Cobb, who underwent testing first, became the leader of the FLATs along with 12 other women, totaling 13 women. Although Cobb was assigned as a NASA consultant and continued the testing process, women were still not trained as astronauts.
During the examinations, some scientists believed that women demonstrated advantages over men for space missions. For example, women's internal organs were thought to be better suited to withstand radiation and vibrations. Due to women's generally smaller size, spacecraft and flights would be less expensive if women were used as astronauts. However, testing for women was cancelled after it was discovered that NASA had not issued an official request for such testing. Lovelace decided to discontinue the program, which created an uncomfortable situation at NASA. Meanwhile, Jerrie Cobb, who had assumed leadership and facilitated the testing for women, was removed from her position at NASA.

Events and accomplishments

Since Sally Ride became the first American woman astronaut, 43 American women had traveled to space by 2012, compared to only 12 women from other countries, with women comprising approximately 10 percent of NASA's astronaut corps as of 2009.

Women at NASA

Astronauts and astronaut managers

  • Ellen S. Baker, physician and veteran of three shuttle flights
  • Kayla Barron, submarine warfare officer and Crew-3 mission specialist on Expeditions 66 and 67
  • Catherine G. "Cady" Coleman, chemist and veteran of STS-73, STS-93, and Expedition 26/27
  • Tracy Caldwell Dyson, chemist and veteran of STS-118 and Expeditions 23/24 and 71
  • Kalpana Chawla, aeronautical engineer, flew STS-87 and STS-107, died in the Columbia accident
  • Mary L. Cleave, environmental engineer and veteran of STS-61B and STS-30
  • Eileen Collins, test pilot and first woman Shuttle commander, veteran of four missions including STS-93 and STS-114
  • Nancy J. Currie-Gregg, engineer and veteran of four shuttle flights STS-57, STS-70, STS-88, STS-109
  • Nancy Jan Davis, aerospace engineer and veteran of STS-47, STS-60, and STS-85
  • Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, science educator and STS-131 mission specialist
  • Yvonne Cagle, physician and astronaut selected in 1996, service in astronaut office and medical roles
  • Anna Fisher, emergency physician and STS-51-A mission specialist, first mother in space
  • Linda M. Godwin, physicist and veteran of four shuttle flights STS-37, STS-59, STS-76, STS-108
  • Susan J. Helms, USAF engineer and veteran of four shuttle flights and Expedition 2 long-duration mission
  • Kathryn P. Hire, operations manager and mission specialist on STS-90 and STS-130
  • Joan Higginbotham, electrical engineer and STS-116 mission specialist
  • Marsha Ivins, engineer and veteran of five shuttle flights
  • Mae Jemison, physician and STS-47 mission specialist, first Black woman in space
  • Janet L. Kavandi, chemist and veteran of three shuttle flights STS-91, STS-99, STS-104
  • Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space designee, died in the Challenger accident
  • K. Megan McArthur, oceanographer, veteran of Hubble servicing STS-125 and Crew-2 long-duration mission
  • Anne McClain, Army aviator and Expedition 58/59 flight engineer with two spacewalks
  • Jessica Meir, biologist and Expedition 61/62 flight engineer, participant in the first all-woman spacewalk
  • Pamela Melroy, test pilot and Shuttle commander, veteran of three missions including STS-120
  • Jasmin Moghbeli, U.S. Marine test pilot and commander of Crew-7 long-duration ISS mission
  • Lisa Nowak, STS-121 mission specialist
  • Nicole A. Mann, U.S. Marine Corps test pilot and Crew-5 commander, first Native American woman in space
  • Ellen Ochoa, electrical engineer and veteran of four shuttle flights, later director of Johnson Space Center
  • Sally Ride, physicist and mission specialist on STS-7 and STS-41-G, first American woman in space
  • Judith Resnik, electrical engineer and STS-41-D mission specialist, died in the Challenger accident
  • Kathleen Rubins, microbiologist and Expedition 48/49 and 63/64 flight engineer, two long-duration missions
  • Rhea Seddon, surgeon and veteran of STS-51-D, STS-40, and STS-58
  • Shannon W. Lucid, biochemist and veteran of five flights including a 188-day Mir mission, first U.S. woman to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
  • Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Navy engineer and veteran of two shuttle missions with five EVAs
  • Nicole Stott, engineer and veteran of Expedition 20/21 and STS-133
  • Kathryn D. Sullivan, geologist and first American woman to perform a spacewalk, veteran of three shuttle missions
  • Tamara E. Jernigan, astrophysicist and veteran of five shuttle missions
  • Laurel Clark, physician and STS-107 mission specialist, died in the Columbia accident
  • Peggy Whitson, biochemist and veteran of three long-duration ISS expeditions, first woman to command ISS twice and first female Chief of the Astronaut Office
  • Stephanie Wilson, aerospace engineer and veteran of three shuttle missions STS-121, STS-120, STS-131
  • Shannon Walker, physicist and veteran of two ISS expeditions, briefly ISS commander on Expedition 65
  • Sunita Williams, Navy test pilot and veteran of two long-duration ISS missions, later led the extended Starliner Crew Flight Test stay
  • Janice Voss, engineer and veteran of five shuttle flights
  • Mary Ellen Weber, chemist and STS-70 and STS-101 mission specialist
  • Christina Koch, electrical engineer and veteran of a 328-day ISS mission, assigned to Artemis II
  • Jeanette Epps, aerospace engineer and Crew-8 mission specialist on a long-duration ISS mission
  • Jessica Watkins, geologist and Crew-4 mission specialist for a six-month ISS mission
  • Loral O'Hara, aerospace engineer and Expedition 70 flight engineer, 204 days on orbit
  • Zena Cardman, geobiologist and commander of Crew-11 on her first spaceflight

Scientists, engineers, and technologists

  • Valerie Thomas, data scientist at Goddard and inventor of the Illusion Transmitter
  • Pearl I. Young, physicist and first female professional at NACA Langley, later Chief Technical Editor
  • Dorothy Vaughan, mathematician and supervisor of the West Area Computers at NACA Langley
  • Mary W. Jackson, aerospace engineer and NASA's first Black female engineer
  • Katherine Johnson, mathematician whose orbital mechanics work supported Mercury, Apollo, and Shuttle missions
  • Christine Darden, aeronautical engineer and sonic boom expert, later Senior Executive at NASA Langley
  • Annie Easley, computer scientist at Lewis, pioneer in codes for propulsion and energy systems
  • Miriam D. Mann, among the earliest West Area human computers at Langley, noted for desegregation advocacy
  • Melba Roy Mouton, mathematician at Goddard who led Echo satellite orbit tracking and programming teams
  • Susan G. Finley, JPL engineer who began as a human computer in 1958, the lab's longest-serving employee
  • Barbara Askins, Marshall chemist who invented a photographic enhancement process, National Inventor of the Year
  • Margaret Hamilton, computer scientist who led Apollo guidance computer software at MIT IL
  • Nancy Grace Roman, astronomer and first Chief of Astronomy at NASA, "Mother of Hubble"
  • Marcia Neugebauer, JPL space plasma physicist who helped make the first in-situ solar wind measurements
  • Claudia Alexander, JPL geophysicist, last Galileo project manager and U.S. Rosetta project scientist
  • Amy Mainzer, astronomer, principal investigator for NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor
  • Natalie Batalha, astrophysicist, Kepler science leader and project scientist at NASA Ames
  • Linda J. Spilker, JPL planetary scientist, Cassini project scientist then Voyager project scientist
  • Sarah Milkovich, JPL science operations leader for Mars 2020 Perseverance
  • Zainab Nagin Cox, JPL spacecraft operations engineer on Galileo, Mars rovers, Kepler, and InSight
  • MiMi Aung, JPL engineer who led the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter through first flight on another world
  • Swati Mohan, guidance, navigation, and control operations lead for Perseverance entry, descent, and landing
  • Diana Trujillo, JPL mission operations leader for Perseverance and Spanish-language EDL host
  • Farah Alibay, JPL systems engineer on InSight, Perseverance, and Ingenuity
  • Elizabeth "Zibi" Turtle, planetary scientist and principal investigator of the Dragonfly mission to Titan
  • Laurie Leshin, planetary geochemist and first woman to direct JPL
  • Lisa Pratt, astrobiologist and NASA Planetary Protection Officer
  • Camille Wardrop Alleyne, aerospace engineer and NASA executive for ISS, CLPS, and commercial LEO programs
  • Michelle Thaller, astronomer and science communicator at NASA Goddard, assistant director then deputy for science communication

Flight operations and leadership

  • Holly Ridings, first female Chief Flight Director at NASA, later Gateway program leader
  • Ginger Kerrick, first Hispanic female NASA flight director, ISS and Shuttle operations
  • Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist and principal adviser on science programs
  • Nicola Fox, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate
  • Lori Garver, NASA Deputy Administrator who advanced commercial crew and cargo partnerships
  • Dava Newman, NASA Deputy Administrator
  • Pamela Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator and former Shuttle commander
  • Vanessa Wyche, director of Johnson Space Center, first Black woman to lead a NASA center
  • Janet Petro, director of Kennedy Space Center
  • JoAnn H. Morgan, instrumentation controller for Apollo 11, first woman at a Firing Room console

Active Women Astronauts

  • Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, physician and Expedition 56/57 flight engineer
  • Tracy Caldwell Dyson, chemist and veteran of STS-118 and Expeditions 23/24 and 71
  • Jeanette J. Epps, aerospace engineer and Crew-8 mission specialist on a long-duration ISS mission
  • Christina Hammock Koch, electrical engineer, 328-day ISS mission, assigned to Artemis II
  • Nicole Mann, U.S. Marine Corps test pilot and Crew-5 commander, first Native American woman in space
  • Megan McArthur, oceanographer and veteran of STS-125 and Crew-2 long-duration mission
  • Anne C. McClain, helicopter test pilot and Expedition 58/59 flight engineer with two spacewalks
  • Jessica U. Meir, biologist and Expedition 61/62 flight engineer, participant in the first all-woman spacewalk
  • Kathleen Rubins, microbiologist and Expedition 48/49 and 63/64 flight engineer, first to sequence DNA in space
  • Shannon Walker, physicist and veteran of two ISS expeditions, briefly ISS commander on Expedition 65
  • Stephanie D. Wilson, aerospace engineer and veteran of three shuttle flights, Artemis team member
  • Sunita L. Williams, Navy test pilot and veteran of two long-duration ISS missions and the extended Starliner Crew Flight Test stay