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FirstWoman to Launch a Satellite

A 21st Century Satellite Orbiting Earth

The first woman ever to launch a spacecraft sent the U.S. Explorer-42 satellite (SAS-1) to Earth orbit from Italy's San Marco Platform in the Indian Ocean off Kenya on December 12, 1970.

She was Marjorie Townsend and she called the satellite Uhuru, a Swahili word for "freedom," in honor of Kenya's independence day December 12.

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