First woman on the moon by 2024 says NASA

It is a point of principle for all parties. If you go up on an American rocket you are an astronaut because you receive astronaut training and wear an American space-suit. If you go up on a Soyuz you are a cosmonaut in a Russian spacesuit.

The Chinese are Yuhangyuans (space-navigators) and not taikanauts which was a term coined by a Malaysian journo.

The French were inistent that all EAS ISS crew would be known as Spationauts.

We still have a tradition of recording ‘the first man to...’ or ‘the first person to...’ rather than ‘the first woman to...’

Who was the first woman to conquer Everest or visit the South Pole? It’s of academic interest only.

If the first person to step foot on Mars is a woman she might go down in history as ‘the first person to step foot on Mars’ instead of ‘the first woman’ but she’s the one they will name the first Martian City after.

The first woman on the Moon will be lucky to have a Thunderbirds character named after her.

Helen Sharman was technically a cosmonaut.

Every definition of 'cosmonaut' I can find is essentially 'Russian astronaut', so that quibble can easily be rejected.

Helen Sharman was technically a cosmonaut.

And almost no one can name the second and third Britons in space either.

And History remembers Sally Ride less for her first flight than for her role as the whistle-blower in the Challenger inquiry, only confirmed after her death.

Have you all heard of the Mercury 13? There was a good radio 4 play about this a few years ago.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_13

The first woman to land on the Moon will be nothing but a pub quiz question 50 years from now but they’ll remember the first ‘Martian’ for as long as they remember Neil Armstrong.

Maybe ... not everyone gets 'first British astronaut' right. And the ones who get it wrong are liable to quibble.

It's a old joke: In the West, Men drove tractors and trucks and women did the housework. In the USSR, women drove tractors and trucks and did the housework.

And that was all very much then. Only an elite test pilot like Neil Armstrong could have landed Apollo 11 safely with all the instruments on the blink. And only a military-trained crew could have kept it together on Apollo 13. Back then, that meant men.

@AlwaysComingHome When I lived there, old women on the streets wanted a return to the Soviet Union. I think on balance it was better for women that what it is today. Women were scientists and had all manner of careers . Nowadays It's porn and prostitution central.

The Soviet Union was an absolute shit hole for women and not much better for men.

Just in terms of women's status in various countries, it was Russia who sent the first woman to space. Communism had a lot of pluses for women. It has unfortunately descended into a porn riddled dystopia since 1991

Public perception isn't it. If women can do it, it's not worth doing.

I went to the space museum recently, and there was in interesting display about research that had been done - I think in the 70s.

They were looking at whether men or women would make better astronauts. Women came on top in nearly every category - just as skilled, consumed less food and oxygen, reacted better to being weightless, remained healthier longer, better suited to the mental stress etc. There was a load more I can't remember.

And then they still went with men anyway. Because men. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not!

Yeah I'm sure I've read that NASA are already thinking that male astronauts are less likely to be successful with the really, really long distance space travel. Women are more likely to cooperate, less likely to take unnecessary risks. I think fewer aggressive tendancies was part of it too.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

I’m not an expert, but some of the reading I’ve done on the subject strongly favours women for long space journeys.

Yup. The "Right Stuff" for the first space flights is spectaculalry the wrong stuff for interplanetary travel. Don't want single-minded risk-takers. Want quiet reliable co-operative types who like reading and quiet nights in.

There's a healthy debate about the film "Passengers" in which male space traveller accidentally wakes up on long voyage, gets bored and decides to wake up girl he fancies to lie to her so he can shag her in zero gravity. She finds out, gets angry, but forgives him and they both live happily ever after and die before everyone else wakes up at what was meant to be their destination.

The Moon is history. A woman on the first Mars mission would be progress.

I can name all the astronauts who walked on the Moon because I’m a nerd but, without looking, who can name the third?

The first woman to land on the Moon will be nothing but a pub quiz question 50 years from now but they’ll remember the first ‘Martian’ for as long as they remember Neil Armstrong.

I’m not an expert, but some of the reading I’ve done on the subject strongly favors women for long space journeys. A push for inclusion isn’t just about the stellar optics of putting a woman on the moon, it’s about size and calorie requirements. There are also theories about general temperament and adaptability. Obviously nasa would
Screen for the desired traits, but the desired traits are more common in women. It’s no different than saying that on average men are stronger and faster so they are more likely to qualify for certain kinds of employment.

An old one but a good one!

On a serious note, I went to a talk a few years back by Kathryn Sullivan (NASA Astronaut group 8 - the first NASA intake to include women and Afro Americans). She made the really interesting point that NASA had done something very sensible by taking on not one but three women - because it stopped that feeling of "if a man on the programme fails, he's just an individual man on the programme who's failed; if the (one and only) woman on the programme fails, she's showed that all women would be failures."

She's a fascinating and amazing woman.

“If they can put one man on the moon, why can’t they put them all there?”Said my granny tears ago)

😂 What a great line!

Sounds very 'just for equality's' sake.

How patronising. It has been done 50 years ago. Sex of the next mission hardly matters now.

“If they can put one man on the moon, why can’t they put them all there?”Said my granny tears ago)

Can we all go?

.....but what would being ON the moon do to their girlie lunar cycles?

(Dons tin hat and runs away very fast)

Is this something a woman would want to do? Space travel has always struck me as being a colossal waste of time. having to smell other people's farts and eat shit food in a tiny space.

Although if that woman, ie an adult human female, has to go there to do the donkey work, then she will be an adult human female

They obviously need to know whether breeders/uterus havers/menstruators* can survive the trip before they try to colonise other planets, obvs. 🙄

• insert insulting term of choice here.

Gender neutral? Unlikely. There’ll be a men’s - for the men; and a woman’s - for everybody who fancies it.
Just like here, really