In this interview Anna Fisher, former mission specialist astronaut, and Kathryn (Kathy) Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, describe what it was like being part of the first NASA class of astronaut candidates that included women in 1978. Fisher and Sullivan talk about when they first knew they wanted to be astronauts, the sexism they faced, what it was like seeing the earth from space for the first time, and for Fisher, what it was like becoming a mother while training to be an
astronaut.

As of March 2023, 72 women have flown in space. Of these, 44 have worked on the International Space Station as longduration expedition crew members, as visitors on space shuttle assembly flights, or as space flight participants on shortduration missions.

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00:00 Kathy Sullivan explains the moment she knew she wanted to be an astronaut
00:41 Anna Fisher on the moment she knew she wanted to be an astronaut
01:11 Anna Fisher explains when she learned that NASA was recruiting women to work as pilots and mission specialists
02:05 Kathy Sullivan on learning NASA was looking for female astronauts
03:12 Kathy Sullivan on getting the phone call she had been excepted into NASA’s program to become an astronaut
03:54 Anna Fisher on all the questions she received after being selected about whether she was physically and mentally fit to be an astronaut because she is a woman
05:20 Kathy Sullivan on what the first year of astronaut training was like
06:33 Kathy Sullivan on the sexist toiletries kits the female astronauts received
07:10 Kathy Sullivan on what it was like seeing the earth from space for the first time
09:02 Anna Fisher on what it was like seeing the earth from space for the first time
09:56 Anna Fisher on wanting to be an astronaut because it was her dream, not to break barriers
10:29 Anna Fisher on getting pregnant and being the first mother to go to space
11:45 Anna Fisher on what it was like leaving her daughter Kristin Fisher to go into space for the first time