How Space Shuttle Missions Shattered NASA's Gender Barriers with Style and Grit

The Space Shuttle program at Nasa played a major role in helping women break through barriers and become astronauts. In 1978, Nasa announced a new group of 35 astronauts, and for the first time, six of them were women. This was a big step forward because, until then, only men had been chosen to fly in space for the United States. The Space Shuttle was a new kind of spacecraft that could be reused for multiple missions, making space travel more accessible. On June 18, 1983, the Space Shuttle Challenger was set to launch, and Sally Ride, a physicist from California, was part of the crew. She became the first American woman to travel to space. Before Sally Ride, only two women had ever gone to space, and both were Soviet cosmonauts: Valentina Tereshkova in 1961 and Svetlana Seviskaya in 1982. American women had to wait much longer for their chance to go to space.

When the six women joined Nasa as astronauts, they received Personal Preference Kits that included items like make-up. Some of the women, like Sally Ride and Kathryn Sullivan, did not use the make-up and felt that it was unnecessary. They thought it was strange that Nasa assumed women would care more about their appearance than the mission. However, other astronauts, like Rhea Seddon, wanted some basic items for photos taken in space. The women also asked Nasa to change some of the products in the kits, such as deodorant and hair products, to be more suitable for women. Nasa sometimes made mistakes, like putting too many tampons in the kit for Sally Ride, which she found funny. The agency also had to adjust equipment like space suits and diapers to fit women, since they were usually smaller than men.

At first, some people doubted that women could be successful astronauts. Many of the men were pilots with military backgrounds and were unsure if scientists and doctors could handle the challenges of space travel. Some people even made jokes about women astronauts, suggesting they were not needed or would have trouble with the job. Despite these doubts, the women proved themselves by working hard and completing important missions. They helped repair the Hubble Space Telescope, conducted scientific research, and showed that women could do anything men could do in space. Over time, Nasa became more diverse, with more women and people from different backgrounds joining the astronaut program. Today, Nasa is a much more inclusive organization, thanks to the efforts of pioneers like Sally Ride and her fellow female astronauts.