Christina Koch sets new spaceflight record

[Still Waters]

Astronaut Christina Koch has had quite the year. In 2019, the American engineer broke no less than two records: the first, along with friend and colleague Jessica Meir, for an all-female space walk, and the second, just days before the new year, for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.

She marked her 289th continuous day in space on Saturday. And no one could be more excited for Koch than retired astronaut Peggy Whitson, who previously held the record at 288 days.

"Records are made to be broken," Whitson tweeted on the weekend, "it is a sign of progress!"

https://www.sciencealert.com/christina-koch-sets-a-new-record-for-longest-female-space-flight

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christina-koch-sets-record-longest-single-space-flight-by-woman-astronaut/

[+Desertrat56]

I look forward to the day when this is not a big deal, as if women are still sub-standard and it is a great feat for a woman to do something men have been doing for decades, only because women were not allowed, not because she has special abilities that most women don't.  It's great to know things are changing but it irks me that they are still changing so slowly, especially now that men should be raised to know that women are human.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

On 12/31/2019 at 3:41 PM, Desertrat56 said:

I look forward to the day when this is not a big deal, as if women are still sub-standard and it is a great feat for a woman to do something men have been doing for decades, only because women were not allowed, not because she has special abilities that most women don't.  It's great to know things are changing but it irks me that they are still changing so slowly, especially now that men should be raised to know that women are human.

Whilst I, in general, agree with your sentiments I feel that they are slightly misplaced here. In this case gender IS relevant. Male and female biology is (obviously) different. If humans are to reach Mars and beyond then space agencies need data on both genders. There maybe issues that mean one sex is better suited to long duration space travel than the other, but without research on both sexes this won't become clear.

NASA was founded in the 1950s and had a 1950's attitude at the time but that has now changed. It has more and more female astronauts filling more and more important roles. U.S. women have commanded space shuttle missions and commanded the ISS. It is notable that no Russian woman has held such a position.

Of the 65 women to have flown in space only 4 were Russian/Soviet, The rest consist of 1 British, 2 Canadian, 2 Japanese, 1 French, 1 Iranian/American*, 2 Chinese, 1 Italian.

Beth Moses is a US citizen and reached space on a Virgin Galactic test flight of their commercial SpaceShipTwo.

The other 54 women in space were/are all NASA astronauts.

Of the 3 US astronauts currently in space two of them are women.

*The Iranian/American, Anousheh Ansari, was a self-funded space tourist. Only the UK and South Korea had a woman as their first astronaut in space.

NASA has made huge progress in equality. On the 10th of January the latest NASA intake will qualify as astronauts. Of the 11 that completed training 5 are women. Two Canadian astronauts will also qualify with them, one of those is a woman.

[+Desertrat56]

2 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Whilst I, in general, agree with your sentiments I feel that they are slightly misplaced here. In this case gender IS relevant. Male and female biology is (obviously) different. If humans are to reach Mars and beyond then space agencies need data on both genders. There maybe issues that mean one sex is better suited to long duration space travel than the other, but without research on both sexes this won't become clear.

NASA was founded in the 1950s and had a 1950's attitude at the time but that has now changed. It has more and more female astronauts filling more and more important roles. U.S. women have commanded space shuttle missions and commanded the ISS. It is notable that no Russian woman has held such a position.

Of the 65 women to have flown in space only 4 were Russian/Soviet, The rest consist of 1 British, 2 Canadian, 2 Japanese, 1 French, 1 Iranian/American*, 2 Chinese, 1 Italian.

Beth Moses is a US citizen and reached space on a Virgin Galactic test flight of their commercial SpaceShipTwo.

The other 54 women in space were/are all NASA astronauts.

Of the 3 US astronauts currently in space two of them are women.

*The Iranian/American, Anousheh Ansari, was a self-funded space tourist. Only the UK and South Korea had a woman as their first astronaut in space.

NASA has made huge progress in equality. On the 10th of January the latest NASA intake will qualify as astronauts. Of the 11 that completed training 5 are women. Two Canadian astronauts will also qualify with them, one of those is a woman.

If NASA had the attitude that you state in your first paragraph women would have been in space in the 60's, but instead they would not even acknowledge the women mathematicians that kept the space program from going belly up!  Do you not understand the implications of hiding their best mathematicians in the back room, the ones that they needed, because they were women, not just women but led by a "woman of color"?!!!  It doesn't have anything to do with what country allowed more women, it is about THIS IS 2020!!!!!  NASA and the Russians have been doing space exercises for decades.  Our sick, roman, misogynist society has barely changed even after women died and were imprisoned just to be allowed to vote 100 years ago.