First woman on the moon by 2024 says NASA

[RedToothBrush]

news.sky.com/story/one-giant-leap-for-womankind-nasa-vows-to-land-first-female-astronaut-on-the-moon-by-2024-11743537

One giant leap for womankind: NASA vows to land first female astronaut on the moon by 2024
The space agency says its Artemis mission will represent its "very diverse, highly qualified" core team of astronauts.

@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.

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.

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.

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.

Helen Sharman was technically a cosmonaut.

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

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.

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.