In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to orbit Earth. But she wasn't the first woman to reach space. Another person holds that honour. #womeninspace #WomenInSTEM
In 1934, Jeannette Picard became the first woman to reach the stratosphere piloting the balloon 'Century of Progress'. She later worked as an advisor for NASA. Dr Piccard is widely acknowledged as the first woman in space. nastarcenter.com/jeannette-picc…
Dr Jeannette Piccard is very well known, even inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame. And yet, I wasn't aware of her until I found her name in a random document. #womeninspace #WomenInSTEM en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette…
Here's a video of the stratospheric balloon flight of Jeannette and Jean Piccard in 1934. They were human experiments, studying the effects of cosmic rays among other things.
A lot of people seem to be under the impression that there is a universally agreed definition of where space begins. I hate to tell you that it's not that simple!
This is a fascinating history. Both Jeannette Piccard (née Ridlon) and her husband Jean Piccard were one of identical twins!
Here is some more detail about the claim that Jeannette Piccard reached space (from nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/det…). The concept of 'physiological space' demonstrates the complexities of defining just what/where space is. 
