Anna Lee Fisher

Anna Lee Fisher, born Tingle, took a degree in chemistry and then went on to earn her M.D., making her decidedly overqualified for most things, let alone launching into orbit. She was selected by NASA in 1978, part of the first class to include women, because, you know, it was the 70s and people were finally getting around to equality.

Her biggest claim to fame, however, is being the first mother in space, blasting off on STS-51A in 1984 while her daughter, Kristin, was just a few years old. One assumes childcare arrangements at NASA were out of this world, or at least highly subsidized.

After a distinguished career that included work on the Space Station Freedom project and the International Space Station, Fisher finally retired from NASA in 2017. While she broke barriers for women and mothers in science, she appears to have done so without the slightest hint of matzo ball soup in her lineage.