First person on Mars 'could be a woman' says NASA executive

First person on Mars ‘could be a woman’ says NASA executive

Mars

It’s a not-too distant dream but it’s a dream nonetheless. A spokesman from NASA has confirmed that the first crewed Mars landing is likely to happen sometime in the 2030s, and it may well be a woman who takes those historic first steps.

“If my 11-year-old daughter has her way, we’ll have a woman on Mars in the not-too-distant future.”  NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters on last week.

I’d hazard a guess that it won’t be just his 11-year old daughter who’d like to have it ‘her way’. Women make up half the world, yet not a single one has stepped onto the surface of the moon. To date, only 64 of the 566 people who have flown to space have been women. This may change in 2024, when NASA’s Artemis program aims to land a woman on the moon.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3p93Qzpj6W/

If they succeed within their proposed timeline, it would be exactly fifty-five years after the first man walked on the moon.

Earlier this year, NASA was heavily criticised– including by former First Lady Hillary Clinton— when it claimed not to be able to move ahead with a scheduled and historic all-female space walk because its suits weren’t tailored for women.

This new announcement from the agency is a welcome step forward.

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