Women conquer space

by Claudia Sonea

There has been a complete revolution in women's position in society and attitude of men towards them. The right to vote was the first step in demonstrating that nothing is impossible. Now they broke the line and there already women who conquered last frontier- space. Space shuttle Discovery is one of the three operational spacecraft in the NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. US used it both for missions concerning research and International Space Station assembly. On October 23 it was launched with the mission of delivering the Harmony module that provide electrical power, bus electronic data, and act as a central connecting point for several other components. Also another goal is to reconfigure a portion of the station in preparation for future assembly missions. The crew is formed of: Pamela Melroy- commander, George Zamka- Pilot; Scott E. Parazynski- Mission Specialist 1; Stephanie Wilson - Mission Specialist 2; Douglas H. Wheelock- Mission Specialist 3; Paolo A. Nespoli- Mission Specialist 4. On Thursday, 25 October, Discovery was parked at the space station by the captain who was praised for the marvelous work she done. She was the first one to enter the space station and there she was greeted by the first female to command a space station, Peggy Whitson, the station's skipper. In order to check the ship's belly for launch damage from ice or foam from the fuel tank, Melroy directed it for a 360-degree backflip while the station photographed it. Although a piece of ice shook lose at the moment of the liftoff scratched the fuel-feedline hatch on the bottom of the shuttle, no harm was produced, according to John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. However, he added that there still have to be performed some analysis to be definitely sure that Discovery has suffered no damage. Clayton Conrad Anderson is an American engineer and NASA astronaut who replaced Sunita Williams on June 10 as a member of the ISS expedition 15 crew. Now he will hand over his post to Daniel Tani who will spend the next two months on the space station. Astronauts Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock will perform the first of the five spacewalks in order to unload Harmony from Discovery and link it to the space station. Also will remove a broken antenna and send it back with the Discovery. Pamela Melroy is after Eileen Collins the second woman to command a space shuttle mission and the third woman selected as shuttle pilot. Furthermore, Peggy Whitson, who is commanding the ISS Expedition 16 crew that will receive STS-120, is the first female ISS commander. It is the first time that two female mission commanders are in orbit at the same time.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071025/ap_on_sc/space_shuttle;_ylt=AvOl7AUFtq4qYnG_vraKO6Ws0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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Posted by: Jana Kalicka