International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day -- a day set aside to honor the achievements of women, past and present, from around the globe. This got me thinking about all of the great women in the space community, so I posed the question on Twitter: Who are the women in the space community that have inspired you?

There have been some great responses. Here is a listing of the suggestions so far:

Jill Tarter, Director of the Center for SETI Research. Beyond being a brilliant scientist and astronomer, her work was featured in Carl Sagan's book, "Contact", and the protagonist in the film was based on her. How cool is that?

Vera Rubin, astronomer. A pioneer for her work on galaxy rotation rates (via @womanastronomer and @dmasten)

Svetlana Savitskaya, Russian cosmonaut. The first woman ever to perform a space walk -- in 1984! She also set 18 international world records on MiG aircraft. Impressive. (via @jimmic)

Space/NASA Twitterati BethBeck, kennicosmith, flyingjenny, @VeronicaMcG, @jhjones and @rocketshadow (of XCOR) all received mentions for the great work they do in sharing the excitement of space with others!

Esther Dyson, journalist, philanthropist, entrepreneur. She has invested in XCOR, Zero-G, and Space Adventures, and trained as ...