Russia's First Female ISS Crew Member Heads Into Space

By Matthew Bodner

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: September 26, 2014 (Issue # 1830)

Yelena Serova training for her stint aboard the International Space Station. Photo: Pascal Dumont / SPT

Russia's first female cosmonaut to travel to the International Space Station, Yelena Serova, launched early Friday morning, making her the fourth Russian woman in history to go to space.

Serova is part of the latest international crew of astronauts and cosmonauts to fly to the International Space Station, where they will spend six months. She is joined by Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev and U.S. astronaut Barry Wilmore.

A native of a country far more patriarchal than Western Europe or North America, Serova has been largely stoic regarding gender issues leading up to the flight, but during a pre-launch press conference at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, she responded to one reporter's question about taking care of her hair with a question of her own.

"Aren't you interested in my colleagues' hair?" she said at a news conference that was televised on Russian state television.

"I will be the first Russian woman to fly to ISS. I feel a huge responsibility toward the people who trained us and I want to assure them: We won't let you down!"

Serova's struggle with Russia's gender divide isn't new. Russia's space program, geriatric and conservative, has historically been under a glass ceiling. The numbers speak for themselves. In 1963, only two years after Yury Gagarin made his historic "first flight," Soviet citizen Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Since then, only two other Russian women have made the trip to space.

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Russia's First Female ISS Crew Member Heads Into Space