| _______________________ |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. � Four courageous women with the rightstuff have sailed in to the universe jot down books as the majority womanlike astronautsever to fly in space at the same time.
Discovery launched in to space at 6:21 a.m. EDT (1021 GMT)in a predawnlaunch from NASAs Kennedy Space Center here carrying sevenastronauts and critical reserve toward the International Space Station.
Three of 7 astronauts on Discovery are women. Theyinclude former high propagandize clergyman Dorothy "Dottie" MetcalfLindenburger, roboticarm consultant Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki, the second Japanese lady everto reach space.
Rounding out the womanlike space party ischemistturnedastronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who is vital on theInternational Space Station after nearing at the orbiting laboratory onSunday. The 4 womanlike spaceflyers will encounter up on Wednesday to form thelargest entertainment of womenin space in history.
Discoverys moody is usually the third in NASA story tolaunch with 3 womanlike crewmembers aboard. There are still some-more men thanwomen in space today, with 9 men (four on Discovery, five on the spacestation) now in orbit.
The initial lady in space was cosmonaut ValentinaTereshkova, who launched in Jun 1963 on the former Soviet Unions Vostok 6mission. The initial Americanwoman in space came dual decades later, in Jun 1983, whenastronaut Sally Ride rode the convey in to circuit on the space shuttleChallenger.
In all, 54 women have flown in space out of the 517people who have reached orbit. NASAs stream arch wanderer is veteranspaceflyer Peggy Whitson, who served dual tours on the space hire �commanding the hire as the initial womanlike arch in 2007.
"Its a smashing event to be piece of any crew,"said Wilson, 43, prior to flight. "I goal it says that women have come a prolonged wayand have worked unequivocally tough to be means to do any of the jobs associated tospaceflight."
Legacy in space
Wilson is an aerospace operative from Boston, Mass. Shebecame the second AfricanAmerican lady to fly in space during her firstspaceflight in 2006. Discoverys stream moody is her third outing to space.
"I goal that piece of the bequest is that we go on to inspireyoung women [to] aspire to careers in science, engineeringor math," Wilson said.
MetcalfLindenburger, 34, is creation her initial careerspaceflight on Discovery, but the expostulate to reach space has been with her sincehigh school, when she attended Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., whilst in ninthgrade.
She was precision high propagandize earth scholarship and astronomyin Vancouver, Wash., when she found out NASA was seeking foreducatorastronauts in 2004. She was researching a subject from a tyro onhow astronauts go to the lavatory in space at the time.
On this flight, MetcalfLindenburger plans to movie someeducational videos about the purpose of robotics in space. She used countingdown to launch with her 3yearold daughter Cambria most times prior to actuallyreaching space.� On Discoverys tangible launch day, MetcalfLindenburger hold upa handdrawn pointer for Cambria with a space hire boat and the numbers "54321," arocket launch countdown.��������
"My daughter doesnt know that theres a big understanding or nota big deal. To her, drifting is cool, using around is being cool, and justrunning around and flourishing up as a child is cool," MetcalfLindenburger said."And theres not a lot of distinction, and thats how I wish it to be."
Yamazaki, 39, is Japans second womanlike wanderer and saidshe drew most of her impulse from her countrys initial lady spaceflyerChiaki Mukai, who initial flew in space in 1994. A fan of scholarship novella filmsand anime cartoons, Yamazaki chose aerospace engineering as her contention andjoined Japans wanderer armed forces in 1999.
Her father was intensely understanding of her space career,and even left his own at the back of so she could go on precision to fly in space.This mission her initial spaceflight.
"It was generally critical to me that my father quithis pursuit and done it probable for my family to stay together as most as possiblewhen my fullscale precision proposed in 2004 in the U.S.," Yamazaki said. "Thesedays, some-more women go on their careers after marriage, but how you juggle yourjob and housework might talk about depending on each familys environment, and thereare assorted ways to do that. My family has schooled to hoop it by trialand error."
A longterm spaceflight
Caldwell Dyson has had a opposite highway to space than herthree convey comrades. She launchedto the space hire Friday on a Russianbuilt Soyuz spacecraftalongside dual Russian cosmonauts.
A former chemist and electrician, Caldwell Dyson is onher second spaceflight, though this one is a sixmonth mass departure as a flightengineer on the stations Expedition twenty-three crew.
It was NASAs initial TeacherinSpace program, whichrecruited Connecticut clergyman Christa MacAuliffe in to NASAs wanderer ranks inthe mid1980s, that authorised Caldwell Dyson to cruise a career in spaceflight.Until then, she thought NASAs "right stuff" order meant being a militarypilot � and a man. But saying MacAuliffe, who after died with 6 crewmatesduring the Challenger accident, altered her mind.
"You proceed to comprehend that I"ve got something in commonwith this person, and if a clergyman has "the right stuff" and a teacher"steaching me all day prolonged ... afterwards it became really engaging to me," CaldwellDyson pronounced in a NASA interview.
Caldwell Dyson will encounter up with the 3 spaceflyingwomen (and 4 men) aboard Discovery on Wednesday, when the convey is due todock at the International Space Station to proceed some-more than a week of jointwork.
The 3 womanlike astronauts aboard Discovery will spendabout thirteen days in space prior to the convey is due to lapse to Earth on April18. Three spacewalks are programmed during the flight, that is one of NASAs lastfew superfluous convey missions prior to the space group retires itsthreeorbiter swift after this year.
Images � Women in Space NASAs Most Memorable Space Missions Video Sally Ride: Americas 1st Female Astronaut| _______________________ |
0 comments:
Post a Comment