When NASA announced its plans for Mission 41-G, one remarkable task on the agenda was a spacewalk by Kathy Sullivan - which would have made her the first woman to do so.But the Russians had other plans: For the first time since 1963 they launched a woman into space aboard Soyuz T-12 on July 17, 1984. And guess what: On July 25, 1984, Svetlana Savitskaya (35) left the Salyut 7 space station for nearly four hours - becoming the first female spacewalker in history.The Cold War at its best...
Note quite true. Savitskaya first launched on Soyuz T-7 in 1982. The Soviets therefore got a political double shot with T-12: The first woman to fly twice (before Ride) and the first to do an EVA (before Sullivan)