The correct answer is B. The United States did not have any women astronauts until 1978; however, the Soviet Union sent a woman into space in 1963.
Explanation:
In grammar, the semicolon (;) is a punctuation mark used to introduce pauses or breaks between different sections of a sentence or between different sentences. According to grammar rules, this punctuation mark should be included to separate two independent clauses, which are clauses that express a complete idea; to separate items in a list if these are long or have inner punctuation and before adverbs that link two independent clauses such as moreover, otherwise, therefore or however.
This means in the case of the sentence "The United States did not have any women astronauts until 1978 however, the Soviet Union sent a woman into space in 1963" a semicolon should be added before the word "however", not only because this is a conjunctive adverb but because this sentence contains two independent clauses that need to be separated by a semicolon. Therefore the sentence that shows the correct use of the semicolon is "The United States did not have any women astronauts until 1978; however, the Soviet Union sent a woman into space in 1963".
