Countries join race to send women into space on the Moon

In 2025, NASA plans to send the first woman to visit “Sister Hang” on a mission to walk on the surface of the Moon. But the first woman sent into space came from the Soviet Union.

The most important thing is that the fate of women is linked to the theme of the universe.

Artemis 1, the largest rocket ever built – built by NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), circled the Moon in 2022 and successfully returned to Earth. Artemis 2 – a more ambitious test flight around the Moon, will depart in 2024. And Artemis 3, expected the following year, will return astronauts to the lunar surface, more than 50 times since humans were last there. set foot.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Apollo program (USA) sent 12 people – all white men – to the Moon and back. This time, with Artemis 3 The crew will consist of a woman and a person of color walking on the Moon. And it could be a person (woman of color).

the first British female astronaut in space.

Back on October 5, 2022, Nicole Aunapu Mann became the first Native American woman in space when she began a five-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Ms. Mann is from the Wailaki tribe in present-day northwest California.t: “I was born in 1977 and in my mind at that time, becoming an astronaut was impossible”she said, referring to her race and gender.

Ms. Mann joined the United States Marine Corps when she entered the Naval Academy in Annapolis, then flew combat aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2013, she was selected for NASA’s astronaut training program. She participated in the research program to develop both SLS and the Orion capsule (which SLS will use to bring humans to the Moon). Returning from the International Space Station ISS (expected in March 2023), it will be a candidate for the 2025 moon landing.

But Ms. Mann still has to compete hard to become the first woman to walk on the Moon. NASA has announced the first 18 members of Artemis Team 3, the group of astronauts preparing to return to the Moon. Nine of them are women, including Ms. Mann. In this team there is Ms. Christia Koch, who participated in the first three (all-female) spacewalks; Ms. Anne McClain, who spent 204 days in space; and former international rugby player Jessica Watkins – who became the first African American to work on the ISS in April 2022.

All women on the Artemis 3 team have advanced degrees in scientific fields.

All women on the Artemis 3 team have advanced degrees in scientific fields.

“We still do not know the identity of the first woman to walk on the Moon”said Ms. Emily Margolis, curator of American women’s history at the Washington Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian Astrophysics Laboratory in Massachusetts.

“But we knew she had to have incredible skills and accomplishments. All women on the Artemis 3 team have advanced degrees in scientific fields. They are astronauts, commercial crew commanders or military pilots.

Ms. Margolis added: “NASA accepted women into its crew in 1978, 20 years after the agency was founded. Although NASA had not previously barred women from applying for crew, the requirements implicitly excluded their participation.

At that time, only military pilots were eligible, but the military prohibited women from this position. But the requirements have changed over time. The first American but the third woman in the world to fly in space was aboard the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983.

Two decades before Ride’s launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, she, a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force, was sent into orbit aboard the Vostok 6, becoming the first woman in the world to fly in space. . Valentina Tereshkova’s trip took place on June 16, 1963, just two years after Yuri Gagarin. can do that.

If we go back in history, it is true that at that time, the Soviet Union had no intention of sending women into space. But in 1961, Mr. Nikolai Kamanin, director of Soviet astronaut training, learned that the United States was considering this possibility. He said it was: “an insult to the patriotism of Soviet women” and decided to act. Even if Mr. Kamanin’s information was false, the United States had no plans at the time to send women into space.

In January 1962, 400 candidates were selected, all paratroopers. A month later, only 5 remained to choose a person who would fly into space.

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in the world to go into space (USSR, 1963).

“It was a race with America for first place: first spacecraft to orbit the Earth, first person in space, first woman in space, first spacewalker,…” Helen Sharman, the first British person to fly in space (and to the Soviet Mir space station in 1991), said: “Traditional values ​​still prioritize women as mothers and housewives. »

History also records: “Mr. Kamanin, the director of Soviet cosmonaut training, condescendingly referred to the cosmonauts as ‘Gagarin in a dress.'” Mr. Kamanin is also believed to have started the rumor that because she fell ill during the flight, Ms. Tereshkova was unable to complete any of her missions; and this “incident” was used as an excuse not to send more (Soviet) female astronauts into space. Ms. Tereshkova has always denied this story, and historians have now admitted that this was not true.

Ms. Tereshkova’s achievements still shine. She had to study, train and fly simulators at the same level as all the other male astronauts – many of whom didn’t meet the requirements. It should be noted that at present, security is not the most important priority. She was awarded the Order of Lenin and became a heroine of the Soviet Union.

“When I trained in the Soviet Union’s Star City, north of Moscow, I always admired the early cosmonauts, especially Valentina.”said Ms Sharman (British astronaut).

“I met her when she came to my group’s farewell breakfast, before we left for Kazakhstan. She always wanted to show her support for female astronauts. We still meet at many different events around the world and Ms. Valentina still gathers all the female astronauts there to take photos together.

And now America has the opportunity to find a successor to Ms. Valentina Tereshkova. The first woman to set foot on the Moon will be as warmly hailed as the first woman to fly in space.

Article source: Tien Phong