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

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Her fellow crewmen on the ISS were heard asking where their dinner was.

By a woman?

[TheRaven64]

Are women in some way better or worse adapted to living in space than men? If not, then why is this at all relevant. Is there a record for longest single spaceflight by a blond, or a black person? What about 'longest single spaceflight by someone with the Slashdot UID TheRaven64?' That record, at 0s, is held by me. W00t!

Once you start picking subsets of humans who have achieved something, it quickly becomes meaningless.

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.

Re:By a woman?

[stoolpigeon]

I can see where you are coming from - but I think that in America (she is an American astronaut) 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. If you think that isn't so, just take a look at the number of jokes in this thread that are born out of a disregard for women as capable. I don't want to be all pc about this but I think it is a real issue - I guess as a father with daughters I'm more sensitive to it.

Re:By a woman?

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Insane drug and sex parties with zero-G Kamasutra moves lasting for days and days without fear of pregnancy? Is that what you meant?

Re:By a woman?

[CastrTroy]

If anybody has ever worked in place where the staff was mostly/all female, they will tell you that the work place dynamics were not good. Arguing over stupid little things and holding grudges against other coworkers is common. I don't mean to generalize here, but as far as I've heard, workplaces with mostly women end up being very hostile. Contrast that to the male dominated places where I worked. Arguments did happen, as they always will, but most men are able to move on and forget about so that the work gets done.

Re:By a woman?

[svendsen]

Can we focus more on the all female crew and "sharing bunks" please?

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.

Re:By a woman?

[stoolpigeon]

hot racking is not what you think it is.

heh

[stoolpigeon]

my initial reaction was that they shouldn't make a big deal over it based purely on sex - but the more I think about it, I hope that this is something that inspires more women to be involved in engineering and other male dominated fields. I think it would be beneficial to all of us.

Obligatory

[wampus]

She also set the record for the most number of orbits with the turn signal on.

Too long in space

[Animats]

If we had a decent launch capability, nobody would be spending that long up there. Things like this happen because of launch delays, not because anybody is supposed to spend that long on a mission.

The record is held by Valeriy Polyakov, who spent 431 days on Mir. He had the unfortunate experience of being up while the USSR was coming apart.

Re:sex in space!!

[steveo777]

The average /. reader is wondering that same question about anywhere.

Re:I disagree

[stoolpigeon]

Well I agree about telling our daughters that they are capable. But female role models in certain fields are very scarce due to the past discrimination. So I guess I'm glad to see a story about a female astronaut, for whatever reason.
 
I don't know that it sounds demeaning though, to anyone who understands the context. I for one, having been a part of the Naval aviation community, fully understand the kind of obstacles this woman overcame to get where she is. Obstacles no man in her class had to face.
 
Go look at her wikipedia write up. Notice how it starts? All the emphasis on her heritage? It looks sort of like some of the lists that are being created to mock my posts. People of just about any race or nationality are extremely proud to be associated with the space program and go out of their way to point it out. Why women shouldn't be allowed to be the same, I have no idea.
 
My initial reaction to the article was that if I had to guess - she is annoyed at the focus on her gender. And maybe she is. But the more I thought about it, the more I was pleased to see a woman achieving this getting attention - whatever the reason.

Re:I prefer to imagine that they 'improvise'.

[r00t]

All sorts of stuff up there on the station...surely some of it can find an additional purpose...

You mean like the Russian dude?