Women in Space

With all the attention drawn to the sad case of Lisa Nowak, I thought it was a good time to point out the many contributions of women to the exploration of space.

• To start, NPR has a timeline of women in space from 2005.
• If you head over the the NASA Frontiers site has profiles of a number of women "pioneers" in the space program. You can also listen to Eileen Collins (first woman shuttle commander) answer questions from orbit.
• Anousheh Ansari was the first female "private space explorer" While she was on the International Space Station, she maintained a "Space Blog". The last post was in October 2006, but you can still read the archives.

There are several sites with biographies:

• Encyclopedia Astronautica: Women of Space profiles women in both the U.S. and Russian (Soviet) space programs.
• The University of Alabama's womens studies program links to profiles of female astronauts from the Johnson Space Center astronaut biography site.

There are many women (and men) who trained, but never made it into space. Anyone thinking of joining NASA should read Homer Hickam's column "What makes an astronaut crack?" (free registration or bugmenot required).

Tags: women astronauts, NASA