Svetlana Savitskaya was born on the 8th of August 1948 into a privileged family in Moscow. Her father Yevgeny Savitsky served as a decorated fighter pilot during the Second World War and later became Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Soviet Air Defense.
Svetlana Savitskaya began parachuting at age sixteen without her parents knowledge and completed four hundred fifty parachute jumps by her seventeenth birthday. She went on to lead record stratosphere jumps from heights of thirteen thousand eight hundred meters and fourteen thousand two hundred fifty meters while achieving fifteen world record jumps from jet planes.
Svetlana Savitskaya launched aboard Soyuz T-12 on the 17th of July 1984 alongside Commander Vladimir Dzhanibekov and research cosmonaut Igor Volk. On the 25th of July 1984 she became the first woman to spacewalk conducting EVA outside Salyut 7 for three hours and thirty-five minutes.
Svetlana Savitskaya was chosen over other female cosmonauts due to her extensive flight experience and physical ability to operate heavy bulky space suits for multiple hours. Her mission aimed to perform the first woman's spacewalk ahead of American efforts serving Soviet propaganda goals.
The women's flight was finally canceled in November 1985 when Commander Vladimir Vasyutin fell ill during another mission. The cancellation coincided with Svetlana Savitskaya's pregnancy and birth of her son Konstantin on the 7th of November 1986.