No More Women in Space...

[Kirsten]

For a while at least, no more women will be going to space. The space shuttle is grounded for who knows how long, and Russia will send no more female cosmonauts to space until the ISS teams comprise six or seven people (which may never happen).

http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s790518.htm

Does anyone know the rationale for the Russian decision? The article mentions "cutbacks" but its not clear how women are supposedly more expensive to send to space than men.

[timeshifter]

Just a random idea that popped up in my head...

Maybe they need different monitoring systems?

In which case, it could be cheaper to send women up, but Russia just does not want to make new suits for them.....

[Kirsten]

Well, I don't know when was the last time the Russians sent a woman up, but wouldn't the monitoring systems/suits/other equipment needed to send women already exist? Or has it really been a long, long time or something?

[K6-III]

From what I can tell, last time was 1997.

[irizarry]

The article in my opinion was designed to stir response. The author probably should of clarified key points so that no one could sublimate hypotheticals from between the lines.
So goes Internet journalism!

As far as women go in space any previous study suggesting that women should not be there or are not equal to their male counterparts is malarkey! Consider the history of sports where there were studies that suggested Afro-Americans could not quarterback in football, or Hispanics could not pitch in baseball. It was all “vapor statistics”. As phoney as ancient cities on the moon inhabited by web armed little people who look a lot like devils. People either look for ways to qualify people or disqualify people. Personally when I run in to people who wish to find ways to disqualify people I know I found a person with a serious character flaw! Women are half our species. I would not want to go anywhere especially space were half the species is not represented.

What I think the article is suggesting is that female cosmonauts are on a waiting list. If flights are canceled indefinitely then obviously those farther down the waiting list will have to wait longer. Another point is that men are traditionally in roles that give them instant access to the astronaut corp. They are pilots, etc. If I was a manager and I pick a previous pilot I don’t have to train this person as much as if I pick someone coming in from the cold. Is it fair to those who are not in traditional roles? Probably not. Economics is the driving force here. What about payload specialist? No previous flight training mandatory. Once again and typically the under represented have to fight an uphill battle because they are not in positions that will give them access. This is another reason for a robust manned space program. It will solve some social issues. It seems obvious to me the more we fly, the more we take up, the more we build in space, the more we use space, the more independent we will be in space.

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