\"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty， believe in them and try to follow them.\" When Louisa May Alcott said these words， she likely had no idea that women one day would not only look beyond the sunshine， but travel beyond the stars to brave new frontiers in outer space. These are some top women who've made a significant contribution to space discovery.

“遠(yuǎn)處的陽(yáng)光里寄居著我最深切的祈望。我可能夠不到它們，但我可以抬頭仰望，凝視它們的美麗，相信它們，并跟隨它們?！碑?dāng)路易莎·梅·奧爾科特(編注：美國(guó)著名女作家，《小婦人》的作者)說(shuō)這些話(huà)的時(shí)候，她可能不會(huì)想到會(huì)有這么一天，女性的視野不但可以超越陽(yáng)光，她們還可以在群星間遨游，探索外太空新的邊界。下面介紹的是為探索太空做出過(guò)重要貢獻(xiàn)的幾位杰出女性。

Valentina Tereshkova 瓦蓮京娜·捷列什科娃

First female in space 第一位進(jìn)入太空的女性

The first woman to fly in space， Tereshkova orbited the earth 48 times in the Soviet spacecraft Vostok 6 in 1963. For three days， she kept a flight log (日志)， took photographs and took manual (手動(dòng)的) control of the craft.

逸聞趣事：瓦蓮京娜·捷列什科娃并非飛行員，而是跳傘運(yùn)動(dòng)員，因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)蘇聯(lián)的飛船返回地面時(shí)需要宇航員跳傘。而成為“太空第一女”也并非易事，捷列什科娃的訓(xùn)練由大名鼎鼎的世界“太空第一人”加加林負(fù)責(zé)。返回地面兩個(gè)月后，捷列什科娃同航天員尼古拉耶夫結(jié)婚，組成了世界上第一個(gè)航天員家庭。

Svetlana Savitskaya 斯韋特蘭娜·薩維茨卡婭

First female spacewalker 第一位女性太空行走者

Nineteen years after Tereshkova's historic flight， Savitskaya flew into space along with four other crew members. In addition to being the second female astronaut， she was the first woman to walk in space. Part of her mission included a 3-hour and 35-minute space walk outside the Salyut 7 space station.

逸聞趣事：從中學(xué)時(shí)代起，斯韋特蘭娜·薩維茨卡婭便開(kāi)始瞞著父親偷偷參加航空俱樂(lè)部的飛行和跳傘訓(xùn)練。16歲時(shí)，她已完成了450次跳傘，并創(chuàng)下3項(xiàng)世界跳傘紀(jì)錄。到24歲的時(shí)候，她已擁有駕駛20種不同類(lèi)型飛機(jī)的執(zhí)照。1984年，斯韋特蘭娜不但走出空間站，還完成了人類(lèi)首次太空焊接作業(yè)。

Christa McAuliffe 克里斯塔·麥考莉芙

First teacher to space 第一位飛向太空的教師

An American teacher from Concord， New Hampshire， McAuliffe was chosen from among 11，000 applicants to participate in NASA's Teacher in Space project in 1986. The goal of the program was to have a non-professional astronaut teach from space， in order to inspire young people to learn about math， science and space exploration. Tragically， she died just 73 seconds after liftoff (發(fā)射) of the space shuttle Challenger， along with six other astronauts.

逸聞趣事：美國(guó)宇航局在50多次載人飛行后，決定要載“平民”乘客進(jìn)入太空。當(dāng)時(shí)的美國(guó)總統(tǒng)里根提議，第一位平民宇航員應(yīng)該是一位教師。經(jīng)過(guò)反復(fù)的挑選，克里斯塔·麥考莉芙最終從一萬(wàn)多名教師中脫穎而出。

Mae Jemison 梅·杰米森

First African-American woman in space 第一位進(jìn)入太空的黑人女性

Part of a joint mission between Japan and the United States， Jemison flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992. A medical doctor by training， her responsibilities during the flight included carrying out experiments to investigate (研究) how space flight causes changes in bone cell (細(xì)胞) function.

逸聞趣事：梅·杰米森在從太空返回地面后說(shuō)：“這件事的重要性不僅在于讓那些成長(zhǎng)中的黑人小女孩知道她們也能夠成為航天員，而且對(duì)那些決定這些黑人小女孩事業(yè)前途的成年白人改變偏見(jiàn)也是很重要的?！倍@也是杰米森唯一的一次航天活動(dòng)。

Eileen Collins 艾琳·柯林斯

First female space shuttle commander 第一位女性航天飛機(jī)指令長(zhǎng)

A former military instructor and test pilot， Collins guided the shuttle Discovery to a rendezvous (對(duì)接) with the Russia's MIR space station in 1995， making her the first female pilot and commander of a space shuttle.

逸聞趣事：艾琳·柯林斯的家庭并不富裕。16歲開(kāi)始，柯林斯就在校外打工掙錢(qián)。到19歲那年，她終于攢夠了1000美元。她立刻帶著這筆“巨款”，去離家最近的飛行學(xué)校報(bào)了名。2005年，柯林斯駕駛隔熱瓦受損的“發(fā)現(xiàn)”號(hào)在太空中做了一個(gè)“轉(zhuǎn)體后空翻”，技藝驚人。當(dāng)返航的“發(fā)現(xiàn)”號(hào)進(jìn)入大氣層時(shí)，美國(guó)宇航局地面控制中心播放了上世紀(jì)80年代的流行歌曲《來(lái)吧，艾琳》，以此向柯林斯致敬。

Peggy Whitson 佩吉·惠特森

Most days in space by a woman 在太空中駐留時(shí)間最長(zhǎng)的女性

An American biomedical (生物醫(yī)學(xué)的) researcher， Whitson set a record for most days spent in space by a woman， having spent over 376 days above the earth. Whitson has also performed a total of six spacewalks， adding up to 39 hours， 46 minutes， more than any other woman. During the 2008 mission， she became the first female commander of the International Space Station.

逸聞趣事：2007年，佩吉·惠特森和丹尼爾·塔尼一起完成了具有歷史意義的人類(lèi)國(guó)際空間站第100次太空行走，更為特別的是他們?cè)谛凶哌^(guò)程中還和地面控制人員進(jìn)行了一次對(duì)話(huà)。一名地面人員請(qǐng)聯(lián)系人員幫他問(wèn)女指令長(zhǎng)惠特森，太空行走是否比做飯和縫衣服更有趣。惠特森回答說(shuō)：“請(qǐng)轉(zhuǎn)告他，我回去后會(huì)負(fù)責(zé)照顧他。不過(guò)，照顧方式可能會(huì)讓他不好受?！?/p>

Anousheh Ansari 阿諾謝赫·安薩里

First female private space explorer 第一位女太空游客

An Iranian-born American and telecommunications tycoon (大亨)， Ansari paid a large amount of money (estimated $20 million) to spend nine days in space in 2006， the first woman (and the fourth person over all) to travel to the space station \"as a guest\" of the Russian space program.

逸聞趣事：2006年9月26日，谷歌兩位創(chuàng)始人之一的拉里·佩奇接到了一個(gè)來(lái)自太空的電話(huà)，這個(gè)電話(huà)就是阿諾謝赫·安薩里從國(guó)際空間站打來(lái)的。在這次“長(zhǎng)途”電話(huà)中，安薩里說(shuō)空間站的食物一般，奶酪通心粉吃著沒(méi)什么意思，不過(guò)還好有MM'S 巧克力豆，她還說(shuō)空間站要是能加一個(gè)淋浴就好了。

Liu Yang 劉洋

First Chinese woman in space 第一位進(jìn)入太空的中國(guó)女性

As part of a mission to build a fully operational space station of China， Liu Yang， as well as two male colleagues， was blasted off (發(fā)射) from the edge of the Gobi Desert on 16 June， 2012， making her China's first woman in space. Ms Liu first joined the army in 1997 and has 1680 flying hours since then.

逸聞趣事：在太空中，劉洋和兩位同事按北京時(shí)間正常作息，每天工作8小時(shí)，還有3個(gè)小時(shí)休閑娛樂(lè)的時(shí)間，他們可以上網(wǎng)、發(fā)微博、看電影、聽(tīng)音樂(lè)等。劉洋喜歡在休息時(shí)間聽(tīng)羅大佑的唱片，看《百家講壇》的光盤(pán)。