DailyDirt: Women In Spaaaaace....
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Over fifty women have flown in space so far, but that's only about 10% of the total number of people who have physically left the planet. It's not easy to become an astronaut (or cosmonaut or taikonaut...), but when humans go into space nowadays, the ratio of women-to-men is slightly better than it used to be. This year marked a couple anniversaries for female space travelers, and hopefully, there will be more manned missions in the future for everyone.- Valentina Tereshkova isn't a name most people in the US remember, but she was the first woman to fly into space -- 20 years before the first American woman would. Fifty years ago, Tereshkova orbited our planet 48 times over 3 days. [url]
- Sally Ride was the first American woman to go into space thirty years ago. Ride went up aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, and she is often mistaken to be the first woman to travel to space. [url]
- In 1962, NASA wasn't even thinking about training female astronauts -- as evidenced by rejection letters sent to aspiring women who wanted a chance to escape the Earth's full gravity. These rejection letters were apparently not uncommon, and Hillary Rodham Clinton even received one when she was a teenager. [url]
Filed Under: anniversary, astronauts, cosmonauts, first, rejection letters, sally ride, space, taikonauts, valentina tereshkova, women
Companies: nasa
