BEST OF TST 2/6/23 - Crotch Rocket: A Small Step Backwards for Women

Becoming an astronaut now or in the past was and remains a strict and demanding process. One needs 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in a jet aircraft, or two years of relevant professional training, along with a master’s degree in STEM fields (not all degrees count), or a Ph.D. and test pilot training, etc. This is just to apply, not to mention 20/20 vision and meeting strict anthropometric requirements, before going through years of tough training. Astronauts are, in essence, the best of the best. And since American space work in particular got off the ground both men and women have made an impact in areas where others would simply not succeed. Therefore it is odd that Jeff Bezos is using his Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, actually shaped like a real penis, to shoot his girlfriend, Lauren Sánchez, and a crew of women into a suborbital flight for 15 minutes in the name of ‘women’. Sánchez, who is a trained pilot, will lead the crew, stating: “It’s going to be women who are making a difference in the world and who are impactful and have a message to send.” But perhaps Bezos, Sánchez, and corporate media have forgotten about the countless pioneering women from all over the world who have already done what Blue Origin seeks to do as part of what could be just a PR stunt using women as the hook - Bezos, after all, did cheat on his ex-wife. For example, Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian astronaut, with two advanced engineering degrees and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, pioneered vertical take-off and landing concepts now being used by… SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin. Peggy Whitson holds the record for the most cumulative days in space period at 665. Christina Koch holds the record for the longest extended stay in space for a woman - 328 days. She also participated with Jessica Meir in the first all-female spacewalk. Kate Rubins was the first astronaut period to sequence DNA in space. Eileen Collins earned four degrees in STEM, economics and management while finding time to become a U.S. AF pilot, and eventually become the first woman ever to pilot a space shuttle. She also docked with the Russian space station and facilitated the deployment of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The first African American woman in space, Mae Jemison, born in 1956 in Alabama went on to earn an engineering degree in her teens, and a doctorate shortly after, before becoming an astronaut and carrying out 44 science experiments in space. Nicole Mann become the first Native woman in space in 2022. Then there is the first American woman in space, Sally Ride, with a Ph.D. in physics and several NASA missions to her name. She also investigated the Challenger disaster and the Columbia crash. The first two women in space, however, were Russian, paving the way for all others: Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya. Dismissing this inspiring history demeans and degrades and erases women from history.

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