Chinese women in space Chinese women in space In 2012, China became the third nation to send women into space with its own space program, after the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States, 49 years after the first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova. Following the successful piloted flight of "Shenzhou 5" in October 2003, China announced plans to send a woman into space as well. Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), told a gathering that she proposed that women, too, should be trained for space missions after China's first piloted space trip. Initially, the criteria for women to be selected, included having
Martha Vasconcellos Martha Vasconcellos Martha Maria Cordeiro Vasconcellos (born June 18, 1948), is a Brazilian beauty queen who became her country's second Miss Universe winner, after Ieda Maria Vargas first achieved the feat in 1963. She also became the fifth Latin American to win the title, after Peru's Gladys Zender in 1957, Colombia's Luz Marina Zuluaga in 1958 and Argentina's Norma Nolan in 1962. Vasconcellos is a native of the state of Bahia. Vasconcellos allegedly had a boyfriend since she was twelve when she represented Brazil at the 1968 Miss Universe pageant in Miami Beach, Florida. She beat 64 contestants, including Curaçao's