News Elena Serova to become first Russian woman to visit the ISS.

[RGClark]

Space Station to Get 1st Female Russian Crew member This Month.
Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor | September 08, 2014 08:08pm ET
http://www.space.com/27075-space-station-first-female-cosmonaut.html

In this preflight press conference Elena gets a bit testy when Russian reporters asks her questions about hair and makeup. It appears at about the 27 minute mark:

Expedition 41/42 Crew Meets Russian Commission Officials and Reporters as Launch Approaches.

NASA TV will begin coverage of the launch today at 3:30 pm EDT. Liftoff is scheduled for today at 4:25 pm EDT.

Bob Clark

 

[Pipcard]

Wait, the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova) was a Russian, but it hasn't been until now that a Russian woman visits the ISS?

 

[MattBaker]

Wait, the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova) was a Russian, but it hasn't been until now that a Russian woman visits the ISS?

There have been three Soviet/Russian woman in space:

Valentina Tereshkova (Vostok 6, 1963)
Svetlana Savitskaya (Soyuz T-7 up, T-5 down and T-12 both ways (1982/84), both times to Salyut 7, did an EVA)
Yelena Kondakova (Soyuz TM-20 and STS-84 (1994-95/1997) both to Mir)

For comparison: 44 female US astronauts, 2 from China, Japan and Canada each, 1 from India, UK, France and South Korea respectively.

I think contributing reasons might be A) The military nature of the Soviet space program, women don't serve a lot B) Soyuz being much more dependent on pilots (in a Shuttle you need two and can fill the rest with everything from teachers to politicians) and even if a woman serves, being a pilot is even more unlikely.

 

[ISProgram]

I'm a little surprised that there hasn't been a Russian women to the ISS yet, and at the same time, I'm not so surprised.

I heard somewhere that Russian didn't really want women in its space program, because it complicated the mission because they had deemed that women were less psychologically stable than men.

I think it was a episode of Mars Rising...

 

[Artlav]

because it complicated the mission because they had deemed that women were less psychologically stable than men.

Hm?
I heard it was a "unnecessary plumbing complexity" issue.

 

[Urwumpe]

I heard somewhere that Russian didn't really want women in its space program, because it complicated the mission because they had deemed that women were less psychologically stable than men.

That was the excuse for not wanting to launch women again, despite the political pressure behind.

In reality, it was just some bit of solvable biological issues and a whole lot of discrimination. Tereshkova was terribly space sick, but because space sickness did not exist in the Soviet Space Program, her superiors simply declared women unfit for flying, despite contradicting evidence from the flight medics. Similar stories are told about the second Russian woman in space in 1982... nobody really knows why nothing happened after the third Russian woman in space.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

It's unfortunate that female social status in Russia is still pretty low, but as someone mentioned the problem may more be on the side that few of them could get into the military and fly on flying machines, or work in academic institutions (which few cosmonauts come from anyway) - most of the ones selected are aerospace engineers, and it takes even much more effort to reach a flight slot. Luckily more of them are being selected in recent years.... :shifty:

 

[NextBigLeap]

It really is a shame that gender inequality extends to space as well, but i understand why women and men stuck in space for an extended amount of time can complicate things a little. But there's no reason that women shouldn't fly in space as much. Speaking of mars rising, they said women on the spacecraft made the men work harder and tidy up better in the morning, so it had a overall beneficial effect on the crew, on the other hand we cant forget about the Lisa Nowak incident which if something like its kind happened in space, that would be a disaster.

 

[RGClark]

It really is a shame that gender inequality extends to space as well, but i understand why women and men stuck in space for an extended amount of time can complicate things a little. But there's no reason that women shouldn't fly in space as much. Speaking of mars rising, they said women on the spacecraft made the men work harder and tidy up better in the morning, so it had a overall beneficial effect on the crew, on the other hand we cant forget about the Lisa Nowak incident which if something like its kind happened in space, that would be a disaster.

On a two or three year mission it would be hard to imagine there would not be romantic relationships developing if there were men and women crew.

Bob Clark

 

[MattBaker]

On a two or three year mission it would be hard to imagine there would not be romantic relationships developing if there were men and women crew.

You have romantic relationships with every woman you've known/worked with for a couple of years?

One of us two is doing something wrong...

 

[DanM]

on the other hand we cant forget about the Lisa Nowak incident which if something like its kind happened in space, that would be a disaster.

I don't believe that was so much because she's a woman, but rather due to severe mental illness.

 

[RGClark]

You have romantic relationships with every woman you've known/worked with for a couple of years?

One of us two is doing something wrong...

You would be living in the same house with no other romantic connections over those 2 to 3 years.

Bob Clark

---------- Post added at 12:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 PM ----------

Congratulations to Roscosmos on the successful launch and docking to the ISS. And congratulations to Elena Serova on being the first Russian woman to serve as a crew member on the ISS.

Bob Clark

 

[kamaz]

On a two or three year mission it would be hard to imagine there would not be romantic relationships developing if there were men and women crew.

That's not necessarily a bad idea -- a typical romantic relationship (i.e. a dopamine/oxytocin ride) lasts about 4 years... So your crew will return just when things start to deteriorate.

On the down side, there would naturally be some drama while on Mars (What were you doing with her in the cargo hold, exactly?).

 

[Ghostrider]

we cant forget about the Lisa Nowak incident which if something like its kind happened in space, that would be a disaster.

Only if the victim were at the control stick at that moment.

 

[NextBigLeap]

I don't believe that was so much because she's a woman, but rather due to severe mental illness.

I never said specifically because she's a women, i said a situation like its kind, like men and women fighting over their romantic relationship. I do agree about how its mental illness but this could happen to either gender.

---------- Post added at 06:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:21 PM ----------

Only if the victim were at the control stick at that moment.

So you don't agree men and women fighting over their romantic relationship wouldn't be dangerous aboard a spacecraft?

 

[Codz]

What about homosexual astronauts? You can't eliminate potential romantic relationships by severely limiting one gender.

 

[DanM]

What about homosexual astronauts? You can't eliminate potential romantic relationships by severely limiting one gender.

And we have a precedent for it, Sally Ride was lesbian but this wasn't known publicly until after her death.

My two cents is that having people with potential to be attracted to one another in space isn't that big of a risk. I've survived being single long enough, plus those with relationships on earth can have regular messages exchanged.

 

[jroly]

There is a transgender applicant for Mars One, Mellisa.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Woman or not, clearly someone thinks she is capable of the mission.

Most of the "Type A" personalities I've know could separate the "mission" from any type of "romance" that they had going. They were being paid to do a mission (usually fly aircraft really fast into really dangerous situations, or train to do the same). Anything else was secondary.

The psycho astronaut lady who drove cross country wearing a diaper to confront her perceived rival I would hope is an aberration.

My take on it (and this is from nearly 30 years of government service in one form or another) is that I don't care what race, gender, religious belief (or lack of), sexual orientation or whatever matters; so long as the individual can perform the work required.

 

[Ghostrider]

So you don't agree men and women fighting over their romantic relationship wouldn't be dangerous aboard a spacecraft?

Mixed martial arts and catfights in freefall... Cool.