Women in Space: We've Come a Long Way Baby!

[3113]

I know you guys are envisioning Barbarella right now, or any other girl in a tight-fitting silver space suit that shows off her curves, but the story's a bit more mundane than that:

In the finest display of extraterrestrial girl power to date, four women astronauts are preparing to rendezvous in space nearly 50 years after the Soviet Union put the first woman into orbit. The... International Space Station (ISS) is to host the biggest non-Earth gathering of women, with one arriving on board a Russian Soyuz capsule yesterday and three more due to join her this week.

Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, 34, Stephanie Wilson, 43, and Naoko Yamazaki, 39, are set to launch aboard the shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 6.21am local time today and dock at the ISS on Wednesday, linking up with Tracy Caldwell Dyson, 40. While their arrival will set a record for the most women in space, the historic nature of the occasion appears to have slipped under the radar at Nasa.

“Maybe that’s a credit to the system, right, that I don’t think of it as male or female?” said Bill Gerstenmaier, Nasa’s associate administrator for space operations, who was unaware of the pending milestone until it was pointed out to him at a press conference. “I just think of it as a talented group of people going to do their job in space..."

Full story here.

That astronauts (all save Tracy Caldwell Dyson):
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00704/0532NASAwomen_704735a.jpg

And for anyone looking for the usual:

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5827/spacebabe.jpg

 

[Goldie Munro]

Yeah - more women in space is good - and without the Barberella suits!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Yeah, save the Barbarella suits for Lit5 or somewhere they'll be properly appreciated.

 

[Goldie Munro]

Yeah, save the Barbarella suits for Lit5 or somewhere they'll be properly appreciated.

Abso bloody lutely

 

[TE999]

That's gratifying to see those ladies in the astronaut corps. It's a shame the space shuttle's being taken out of service.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Uh, that thing has killed too many brave people. It's 'way too complicated to be reliable and we really need a better way. What that way may be, I have no opinion but the shuttle has had its day. It never lived up to its promotion. It never could live up to its promotion and it's time to give it a rest before it kills another crew.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I know you guys are envisioning Barbarella right now, or any other girl in a tight-fitting silver space suit that shows off her curves, but the story's a bit more mundane than that:


Full story here.

That astronauts (all save Tracy Caldwell Dyson):
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00704/0532NASAwomen_704735a.jpg

I think the photo of the three women might say more than the text.

 

[TE999]

Uh, that thing has killed too many brave people. It's 'way too complicated to be reliable and we really need a better way. What that way may be, I have no opinion but the shuttle has had its day. It never lived up to its promotion. It never could live up to its promotion and it's time to give it a rest before it kills another crew.

The two shuttle losses were due to errors made on the ground to the boosters and the craft itself...as a space vehicle it has performed quite well...many people have died in the advance of aviation, but planes continue to be built, flown and improved...so it should be with space exploration with it's inherent risks.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The two shuttle losses were due to errors made on the ground to the boosters and the craft itself...as a space vehicle it has performed quite well...many people have died in the advance of aviation, but planes continue to be built, flown and improved...so it should be with space exploration with it's inherent risks.

Space will always be dangerous. Heck, everything is. But the shuttle is thirty-year-old technology. Would you climb into a thirty-year-old jet liner? It needs a successor as soon as possible. My guess is that between rockets and the space elevator will be bigger and more powerful versions of the White Knight and Space Ship Two. That's something private enterprise can build and run. The shuttle could never be private, it's too expensive and unwieldily.

 

[Xelebes]

I know you guys are envisioning Barbarella right now,

When I think of Barbarella, I think of this.

 

[DeeZire]

I think it's important to keep things in perspective. What's more important, four women going into space, or the 69 second lesbian love scene cut from the American release of Barbarella? You Europeans have all the luck!

 

[Handley_Page]

I think it's important to keep things in perspective. What's more important, four women going into space, or the 69 second lesbian love scene cut from the American release of Barbarella? You Europeans have all the luck!

Did I blink, then ?
Or was our copy of the film "edited for content" ?
I rather liked the look on Jane Fonda's face when in the Orgasmatron.

Personally, I fear that the Russians are even further back in technology that the Shuttle. I'm sure that some new shuttle airframes can be made with all the more modern developments and decent computers, etc (like Ejector seats?).

I think someone is pondering a remake:-

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://theaterofmine.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/lg_7045251_barbarella_preview.jpg&imgrefurl=http://theaterofmine.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/potential-barbarella-remake-gets-a-new-director-most-likely-drops-rose-mcgowan-and-damn-well-better-cast/&h=550&w=535&sz=80&tbnid=MKVoi0a2CBkXgM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBarbarella&usg=__c4nFYHoEj2_5uRqAy19Y2UQFZik=&ei=aq-5S_jWA5iy0gTjrcEx&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=6&ct=image&ved=0CBAQ9QEwBQ

OR:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwNEnh9uaM

 

[stephen55]

While their arrival will set a record for the most women in space, the historic nature of the occasion appears to have slipped under the radar at Nasa.

“Maybe that’s a credit to the system, right, that I don’t think of it as male or female?” said Bill Gerstenmaier, Nasa’s associate administrator for space operations, who was unaware of the pending milestone until it was pointed out to him at a press conference. “I just think of it as a talented group of people going to do their job in space..."

That there are more women working in space is great.
That having four women at the ISS, which is a record, isn't considered newsworthy by NASA, is even better. That NASA believes gender to be irrelevant and thus ignored, has got to be good for everyone. To have made a big gender deal about this mission would simply have been another back handed "compliment " and insult.

 

[3113]

That NASA believes gender to be irrelevant and thus ignored, has got to be good for everyone.

100% agreement on that. And to ice the cake, you'll note from looking at those women that race, ethnicity, etc. don't seem to be relevant either. We've come a long way not only from male-only astronauts but white-only astronauts.

And the best thing about it, without a doubt, is that both are going unremarked upon and unnoticed--taken as status quo.