Philip J. Bond, an illustrator, did a series from 2009 illustrating various women astronauts and cosmonauts in the history of the space age. These illustrations span from the USSR’s first woman in space on Vostok 6, Valentina Tereshkova (pictured IRL in 1963, above) to NASA’s first female African-American astronaut, Dr. Mae Jemison, and beyond. The drawings not only illuminate the female presence in the space race and astronautical engineering in general, but are also pretty darn cute.

Emily Carney is a writer, space enthusiast, and creator of the This Space Available space blog, published since 2010. In January 2019, Emily’s This Space Available blog was incorporated into the National Space Society’s blog. The content of Emily’s blog can be accessed via the This Space Available blog category.

Note: The views expressed in This Space Available are those of the author and should not be considered as representing the positions or views of the National Space Society.