It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011. ... Safety came first. The cool — or wow — factor was a close second. China selected two women in its second group of taikonaut trainees in 2010, and the first to fly in to space was Liu Yang on Shenzhou 9 in June 2012. The first American astronaut to walk in space is late Edward White, the Russian Alexi Lenov was the first man to walk in space, say float would be the correct word. NASA is reportedly investigating what’s said to be the first ever instance of a space crime. Know more The United States did not select women for astronaut training until 1978, and the first female U.S. astronaut, Sally Ride, was launched aboard the space shuttle Challenger in June 1983. She was also the first person to wear a badge to signify having reached "10+ km" deep that space patch artist Tim Gagnon styled after NASA's "Mach 25" emblems awarded to astronauts after they return from Earth orbit. Though rare, Sullivan's call was not the first astronauts to astronaut-aquanaut call. UAE astronaut, 35-year-old AlMansoori graduated from Khalifa bin Zayed Air College from where he made his way to become an F16 pilot. After 14 years experience in military aviation, AlMansoori made history as the first Emirati to be deployed on a space mission to the International Space Station on 25 September 2019.