3…2…1…Blast Off!

Posted by: gretchen on April 23, 2007 |

Astronaut DesignHave you ever dreamed of being an astronaut? I can’t say that I ever wanted to be one, but I think spending a day in an anti-gravity tank would be kind of cool. My 10 year old daughter has been fascinated with astronomy and earth science ever since her class completed a unit on space and the universe and has been telling me I need to make an astronaut design. So I’ve been working on the Girls Can’t WHAT? Astronaut design for a couple days now and despite about a half dozen technical issues (you know…”Houston, we have a problem”), it is finally available in the Girls Can’t WHAT? Shop.

As always, I try to do my homework before starting a drawing to get a feel for the style of the design. Finding a good action photo of a female astronaut proved to take a bit longer than I anticipated. That surprised me because I remember enough from high school history class to name several women cosmonauts. Here is a quick timeline for women in space:

  • 1963 - Valentina Tereshkova from the USSR becomes the first woman in space.
  • 1978 - Six women are selected as candidates by NASA: Rhea Seddon, Kathryn Sullivan, Judith Resnik, Sally Ride, Anna Fisher and Shannon Lucid.
  • 1983 - Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
  • 1984 - Svetlana Savitskaya from the USSR becomes first woman to walk in space.
  • 1984 - Kathryn Sullivan becomes first American woman to walk in space.
  • 1984 - Anna Fisher becomes the first person to retrieve a malfunctioning satellite, using the orbiter remote manipulator arm.
  • 1992 - Kathy Thornton is the second woman to walk in space and sets the record for the longest space walk by a woman.
  • 1992 - Bonnie Dunbar and Ellen Baker dock with the Russian space station.
  • 1992 - Mae Jemison becomes first African American woman in space.
  • 1993 - Ellen Ochoa becomes first Hispanic American woman in space.
  • 1994 - Chiaki Mukai becomes the first Japanese woman in space.
  • 1995 - Eileen Collins becomes first woman to pilot a space shuttle.
  • 1996 - Shannon Lucid returns from her six months on Mir, the Russian space station, with a record for the time in space for women and for Americans — she is also the first woman to be awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
  • 1998 - Nearly 2/3 of the flight control team for STS-95 were women, including the launch commentator, Lisa Malone, the ascent commentator, Eileen Hawley, the flight directory, Linda Harm, and the communicator between crew and mission control, Susan Still.
  • 1998 - December - Nancy Currie completes the first task in assembling the International Space Station.
  • 1999 - Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to command a space shuttle.
  • 2002 - Biochemist Peggy Whitson becomes the first resident scientist of the International Space Station.
  • 2005 - Eileen M. Collins, the first woman to pilot and to command a NASA space shuttle, commands Discovery for NASA’s first shuttle mission since the Columbia accident in 2003.

Astronaut Design

Comments

3 Responses to “3…2…1…Blast Off!”

  1. Paula The Surf Mom on April 24th, 2007 2:29 pm
    Gravatar

    You forgot that one that went all nutty last month.

  2. gretchen on April 24th, 2007 5:12 pm
    Gravatar

    Uh yeah, there’s a reason for that. :d

  3. Paula The Surf Mom on April 27th, 2007 5:57 pm
    Gravatar

    Sorry :(

Leave a Reply