It's an all-woman spaceflight that's in the news. Is this a big deal? I find out it is.
There have been 420 spacewalks and at least one man has taken part in every one of them. Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are the two woman to carry out a spacewalk today.
Koch was supposed to do a spacewalk with another female crewmate in March. But NASA had to scrap the plan just a few days in advance because there wasn’t enough time to get a second medium-size spacesuit ready. The second medium was put together on board in June.
So while there have been 420 spacewalks, Koch became the 14th woman to walk in space last March 29 when she and crewmate Nick Hague worked to install the second set of solar array batteries.
A total of 565 people have gone to space from over 38 countries. One source says 40 and the Atlantic article says 60 American women have flown in space.
The first woman flew into space in 1963 - a Soviet. A number of American women underwent the astronaut selection process in the early 1960s - and passed. They were not eligible to be astronauts: All astronauts were required to be military test pilots, a career not available to women at the time.
NASA opened the space program to female applicants in 1978, in response to the new anti-discrimination laws of the time. Sally Ride became the first female US astronaut to go into space in 1983. At the time, the press asked her questions about her reproductive organs and whether she would cry if things went wrong on the job. Things have improved since then.
So this turns out to be a big deal and worth noting in the press. The Atlantic has an article on why there were so few women in space - it is HERE.
Where is this blossom-strewn path? In the Sacramento Cemetery. This was a wonderful highlight of the visit.
