Female Astronaut Sets Space Record

Raver32 writes to tell us that U.S. astronaut Sunita 'Suni' Williams has set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Breaking the previous record of 188 days set by astronaut Shannon Lucid in '96, Williams has lived aboard the space station since last December. "'It's just that I'm in the right place at the right time,' Williams, 41, said when Mission Control in Houston congratulated her on the record. 'Even when the station has little problems, it's just a beautiful, wonderful place to live.'"

Comments

Re:By a woman?

[CastrTroy]

If you look at the Guinness book of world records, you will see that a lot of the records are differentiated by sex. When you think about it, it's kind of odd. Women have been fighting for equal rights for so long, and yet in situations such as this, women are considered inferior, or at least, different.

Neat, so when do we stop.

[ushering05401]

I know many fem rights activists as my sister is an advocate for the cause (Berkeley based). Many of those ladies get offended by the constant separation of female achievement from male achievement.

So the question is when do we stop. Previously a woman spent 188 days in space. This woman broke that record. Another woman will break the new record. I get the feeling that people are holding up these records as some sort of validation that we now treat women equal to men.

Reality is, we are treating women equal to men when they are judged by the same criteria. The day that I see a story on the /. front page that a woman holds the *overall* record for time in space is the day I will start believing that humanity has come to terms with equality between the sexes.

Then again, my experience conversing with fem related activists shows me that as many women would disagree with this point as might agree.

Just something to think about. In my mind this story is kinda equivalent to the old example of hidden racism... the one related to calling a black person 'well spoken'... which is apparently offensive to many black people (for several reasons) but thought of as a compliment by most white people. If you are unfamiliar with this concept ask a sociology grad to explain it, as I do not have links to the studies.

Regards.

Re:By a woman?

[Timesprout]

I agree, I find women in the workplace are generally polite to each other and then frequently turn around and bitch like anything behind each others back. However the office wokspace is a very different environment to a nuclear submarine where you are deployed for 6-8 months at a time in a 100m long narrow metal tube, sharing bunks, monotonous shifts etc and there is just no getting away from each other. Thats what the study concluded women dealt with better than men with improved discipline and efficiency IIRC.

Re:By a woman?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a daughter who is 5. She thinks astronauts are cool, without any encouragement from me--really, she just picked it up. We've been watching this mission off and on over the past week on Nasa TV.

Every shot on TV, whether it's an interior shot of the crew or an exterior spacewalk, she asks "Is that a girl?" This is entirely without any encouragement from me or "programming" in school, she just asks. She asks the same question when she's watching sports on TV. She asks it about her doctor, her teachers, just about every profession she sees. It's a big deal to her. Society hasn't drummed anything into her head, there's no politics or agenda involved. It's clear she's just looking for people/activities she can relate to.

Sure, it's bad that we differentiate based on stuff that shouldn't matter, but it's not bad (and seems to be genetically ingrained) that we look to role models similar to ourselves, whether the similarity is superficial or not.

Re:By a woman?

[billstewart]

There are records where gender directly makes a difference - most children, for instance.

And there are records where gender influences body shape, size, strength, and therefore separate records might make sense - running fast or far, lifting weights, etc.

But then there are records like this where gender mainly influences the social environment - of those women who wanted to be astronauts when they were kids, or who kind of fell into it later after being doctors or test pilots, the percentage who could get through the prejudice of the military (who are the main source for astronauts) or the other civilian organizations that NASA deals with is going to be lower than the number of men who have that.

So it's kind of like "Record for being in space longest with one hand tied behind your back". You can either give extra karma points to the person who sets the record, or deduct them from the people who discourage women from being astronauts.

I disagree

[everphilski]

there is some value to emphasizing the possibilities to certain groups in the past that were told that they were incapable of certain things, be they intellectual or physical limitations.

I guess as a father myself, I disagree. Instead of setting up seperate bars for men and women, the playing field should be level for everyone. Since we now tell our daughters that they don't have those incapabilities and limitations that prior generations had, shouldn't we tell them that they can attain as much as any individual on the face of this earth? Why are we construing a second set of records? "Sergei Krikalev holds the space duration record of 748 days in orbit, but the highest by a woman is ... "

Doesn't that sound demeaning to you?

An exception I do agree with is sports and olympic events. Our bodies are physically built differently. I understand setting up physical competitions that are gender based. But in the workplace and in educational pursuits, I don't see why we need to set up a second tier of markers for our daughters. They should be as capable as anyone, right?

What does 188 days in space do with you?

[hcgpragt]

Does anyone know what such a long time in space does with your body?
What would be differences in impact between woman and men?
I seem to remember a documentary about Russian cosmonauts who's bone-mass had become alarmingly small after being in weightlessness too long.
Is that different these days?

H
p.s Please keep it scientific....