First American Woman in Spacewalk

Date: October 11, 1984 • Location: Washington, United States

Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan (pictured) became the first American woman to perform a space walk.

Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, Challenger was the second Space Shuttle orbiter to fly into space after Columbia, and launched on its maiden flight in April 1983. It was destroyed in January 1986 soon after launch in a disaster that killed all seven crew members aboard.