Fast forward to present day, and women are making great strides in the world of astronomy, years among years after the moon landing and discoveries by early astronomers. Most recently, in fact, on October 18, 2019, NASA performed the first ever all women space walk. Jessica Mier and Christina Koch were the two astronauts on this mission who performed the walk. A fair amount of women have been to space, about sixty, but this was the first ever all woman space walk.
The first-ever woman to space was Vanentina Tereshkova, a soviet cosmonaut on June 16, 1963 and a few other cosmonauts after her. Sally Ride was the first American woman in space in the year 1983. Coming back to the present day, Jessica Mier and Christina Koch had been on space missions before, but this was a mission which would truly help break barriers. This mission, like most, faced a fair amount of challenges at first.
Originally it was supposed to be launched March 29, 2019. This was because of some physical barriers like space suit size; only having a few medium sized space suits. There were minimal so their other partner, the astronaut Anne McClain, had to stay back on the orbiting station. Ken Bowsersox, an administrator for NASA human exploration said ‘There are some physical reasons that make it harder sometimes for women to do spacewalks. It’s a little bit like playing in the NBA, you know I’m too short to play in the NBA and sometimes physical characteristics make a difference in certain activities, and spacewalks are one of those areas where just how your body is built in space, it makes a difference in how well you can work the suit,’.
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This was in response to the question of why there have been such a minimal number of women to space. There are many other women making history in the field of astronomy back on Earth in engineering and science. One of the women in this field is Tiera Guinn Fletcher, she is an African American rocket engineer at the age of 24. She has been working on the structure of a launch system intended to send people to the planet Mars in the near future. Another woman in the field is Nandini Harinath. She is an Indian rocket scientist who is working on the Mars Orbiting Mission for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with planning and outlining the missions.
Mankind made it to the moon. The next frontier for humans to explore is aimed at Mars because it is a planet that seems able to sustain life better and unlike others which are bitterly cold or scorching hot. Some have such violent weather that space exploration seems merely possible by mankind, but perhaps with some help, women can make it to those planets as well as the men. Many other women are helping in this field today and there are many missions planned for future exploration. From decades ago to now, women are still advancing in the field of astronomy, making discoveries and breaking many barriers.
