By 1986, NASA was approaching a goal of 12 to 13 shuttle launches each year. Kennedy Space Center on April 12, 1981, carrying John Young and Robert Crippen. The first reusable space shuttle lifted off from John F. The Space Shuttle program was dedicated to creating a reusable shuttle. Photo courtesy of NASA-the first launch of the space shuttle, April 12, 1981 Space Shuttle Columbia liftoff from Complex 39A-the first launch of the space shuttle, April 12, 1981 Michael Collins, navigator of the Apollo craft, remained in orbit. touched down on the moon in their lunar module on Jwhile Lt. Kennedy Space Center, Apollo 11 culminated when astronauts Neil A. After the first few Apollo missions, all originating at the John F. The goal of the Apollo program, the largest and most ambitious of the manned space programs, was landing astronauts on the moon and their safe return to earth. Project Gemini was dedicated to long-duration missions. Project Mercury, executed in less than five years, put a manned spacecraft in orbital flight around the earth. The space program proceeded rapidly, progressing through four major phases: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the Space Shuttle. In 1961 NASA requested from Congress authority to purchase 125 square miles of property that became John F. However, when President Kennedy initiated the Man-to-the-Moon project, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was deemed insufficient to house further facilities. Kennedy Space Center, space missions originated from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Kennedy Space Center in eastern Florida has historically functioned as the major National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launch facility for manned and unmanned space missions. “And so.because NASA has so many great people to select from it's much easier to get closer in parity.They do really seem to be doing a good job at trying to diversify.A Space Shuttle on its Crawler Transporter after leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building VAB, September, 7, 1990 “We have a much larger body of women-successful women to choose from,” she says. Foster attributes this to the greater amount of opportunities for women in the military and the fact that more women are getting advanced degrees in science, engineering and medicine. She says the last two classes of astronauts have mostly been equal between men and women. “For a woman to come in and do that, there were a lot of people, both men and women, who were arguing ‘it's not the place for women,’” she says.įoster says NASA is doing well now when it comes to gender diversity. “And so they understood that everything that they did was going to be judged and evaluated in a way that the men weren't.”įoster says these women were doing a job that was considered to be “an American hero’s job” at a time when there was still animosity toward women in the workplace. “The response would be, ‘ugh, these women, they just can't, you know, they can't make a decision, they’re flighty, they’re unpredictable,’” she says. She says Ride and the other women understood that if the next woman who came along changed the procedures, there would be pushback. “They understood themselves as heroes for girls, you know, and young women who were coming up through comparable ranks,” she says.įoster says when Sally Ride was selected to make the first flight of an American woman in space, she sat down with the other five women as she was writing procedures. “There was a lot of uncomfortable conversations, I think, for the male engineers to have to breach these topics with the women,” she says.įoster says the first female NASA astronauts understood they were making history and that everything they did would set a precedent. In addition, Foster says male engineers were uncomfortable around the women, especially when they had to ask them questions regarding living conditions such as designing the toilet. “So, you know, it's very much science based stuff.”įoster says although these astronauts don’t say they were discriminated against, they faced “bumps in the road.” She says they were laughed at behind their backs and judged because they were women. “We've got an astrophysicist, a biochemist, an electrical engineer, an ER physician, a surgeon and a marine geologist,” she says. She spoke with WMFE's Brendan Byrne about the first female astronauts at NASA and her book Integrating Women into the Astronaut Corps: Politics and Logistics at NASA.įoster says the first female astronauts were all scientists or physicians with either an M.D. University of Central Florida history professor Amy Foster says that focus on science gave women a window to join NASA's astronaut corps. In the 1970’s, NASA began looking ahead to the Space Shuttle program-a program with a greater focus on science. After the final Apollo mission, the space race was over.
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