Two NASA astronauts have taken a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to swap batteries on Friday. This was supposed to be NASA's first all-female spacewalk. But the US space agency only had one spacesuit in the right size available in time for the walk. So instead, Nick Hague joined Christina Koch to make Friday's upgradesa nd Anne McClain gave up her place in the mission. There have only been a few dozen female astronauts to date. CGTN's John Zarella talked to some of the female pioneers about women's participation in space exploration.

Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space more than fifty years ago in 1963, orbiting the Earth for nearly three days. But during the early years, space travel was, for the most part, a guy thing. It would be nearly twenty years before the second woman, Russian Svetlana Savitskaya, flew in 1982. She also holds the distinction of first woman to walk in space.  

The U.S. didn't put a woman up until Sally Ride flew on the Space Shuttle a year later. Ride was part of the first group of women selected by the U.S. space agency NASA. There were six of them including Doctor Rhea Seddon.

RHEA SEDDON FORMER SPACE SHUTTLE ASTRONAUT "I think a lot of the men were afraid that we weren't serious about being astronauts. But of course, all of us were serious scientists at the time and we worked very hard to get to that place and were very anxious to make it successful."

Of the more than five hundred people to have traveled to space, just over sixty from a dozen countries are women. Hardly enough says Doctor Seddon.

RHEA SEDDON FORMER SPACE SHUTTLE ASTRONAUT "I think that there have not been enough women astronauts. I think when you look at the percentages. But, they're getting there."

Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer flew to the International Space Station on a Russian Rocket in 2006.

ANOUSHEH ANSARI X PRIZE CEO "I just started crying and I'm laughing. I'm confused. I had seen pictures of earth from space many, many times. For whatever reason, seeing it with my own eyes, it was such an incredible momentous moment." 

Ansari believes anytime women working in space can and should be inspirational.

ANOUSHEH ANSARI X PRIZE CEO "It's important for young women to see this as an indication that women have no limits and no boundaries to what they can accomplish."

JOHN ZARELLA CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA "And those accomplishments may be profound. If some of the current talk becomes reality, the next person to take a step on the moon and the first human on Mars might be a woman. John Zarella, CGTN America, Cape Canaveral, Florida."