Women's mark in the history of space flights

For the first time in the 50-year history of flights into space, there will be two women on October 23, sitting on the chairs commanding two spacecraft.

When the space shuttle Discovery leaves the launch pad on Tuesday, a woman will sit in the commander's seat and at the international space station, a female captain will be there to welcome her. This event is not entirely a NASA gimmick, but a coincidence. Space shuttle commander Pamela Melroy and commander of Peggy Whitson international space station will meet.

"There is no arrangement," Melroy, retired air force colonel, who will become the second woman to command a flight into space. "This is a special occasion for us."

Commander space shuttle Discovery - Melroy (Photo: VNN)

Whitson - the first woman in charge of the space station, arrived at the orbit on Russia's Soyuz on October 12. Whitsong flew with two other astronauts, one of whom would stay with her for six months at the orbit.

Melroy , 46, a former test pilot, from Rochester, New York and Whitson, 47, a doctoral biochemist from a farm near Beaconsfield, Iowa, is two of 18 female astronauts at NASA. Another 73 NASA astronauts are men.

Currently, Melroy is the only remaining space shuttle pilot at NASA. Eileen Collins, the first woman to become a space shuttle command in 1999, left NASA in 2006. Susan Kilrain, who was a space shuttle pilot but never a commander, resigned in 2002. Both Both have children.

Melroy and Whitson are married to two scientists and have no children.

The next trip will be Melroy's 3rd space shuttle flight, in the previous two flights, she was only a pilot. Melroy became an astronaut in 1995 and Whitson was an astronaut in 1996.

A week and a half together on Melroy's orbit and Whitson will be very busy and their work is very complicated. Discovery will tow a pressure vessel as a dock for European and Japanese laboratories, which will be delivered in the next few months. The astronauts will connect new compartments, named Harmony with the space station. Five outer space trips will be conducted. Melroy and Whitson will monitor everything that happens.

Hoai Linh