Russian female cosmonaut Anna Kikina lifted off for the International Space Station (ISS) on October 5 on the US spacecraft Crew Dragon. The spacecraft's crew included NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Сassada and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata. 

Right now, Kikina is the only woman on the Roscosmos cosmonaut team. This is her first long-awaited flight, which has materialized almost 8 years after Kikina took the position of a test cosmonaut.

In all, 72 women have embarked on voyages beyond the earth’s atmosphere since the start of the space age, with six of them from the Soviet Union and Russia. The first woman to venture into space was Valentina Tereshkova. Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to perform a spacewalk. Peggy Whitson spent more time in orbit and outside any spacecraft during space walks than any other female colleague. 

For more about cosmonauts, astronauts and taikonauts see the TASS infographics project.