Women at the helm of a spaceship?

From ioL SciTech.com: Women at the helm of a spaceship?

Moscow - Half a century after the first human space mission involving legendary cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Russia's space programme is still dominated by men.

Gagarin once called female cosmonauts the “Amazonians of space” and even though Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in orbit when piloting the Soviet Vostok 6 in 1963, women cosmonauts continue to be the exception rather than the rule.

“There is a lack of female cosmonauts,” admitted Vitali Davydov, deputy head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Media experts covering the area have speculated that the lack of women in the Russian space programme is as much to do with male chauvinism as any perceived lack of technical enthusiasm among potential female applicants.

Yelena Kondakova was the last female cosmonaut to make it into space 14 years ago and a successor is nowhere in sight.

Numerous men are currently in training with Roscosmos, but there isn't a single woman in the programme.

“No candidates have applied,” said Davidov before conceding that there were few role models for women to look up to. So far, over 100 men have made it to space under the Soviet and Russian space programmes compared with just three women.

The European space programme is similarly weighted in men's favour while the US space agency Nasa has a much more favourable record, sending 12 women into space since Sally Ride became the first American women to enter space in 1983.

“Women cosmonauts have no real advocates in Moscow,” commented the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station, noting that, as far back as 1966, Russian scientists decided to send two dogs into space rather than two women.

Veterok and Ugolyok were launched on February 22, 1966 on board Cosmos 110, and spent 22 days in orbit before landing unharmed on March 16.

German space expert Oliver Knickel believes that the wish to have children can be a hindrance to a woman's career as an astronaut.

“Training lasts eight years so certainly isn't of interest to women who have reached the age of 30,” he said.

John Clark, a doctor with Nasa, believes women have to sacrifice so much more than men if they want to make it as an astronaut.

“A female astronaut has to constantly try and strike a balance between career and family,” said Clark, whose wife Laurel died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003.

Gagarin once argued that mothers shouldn't be allowed to fly into space as the loss in the event of an accident would be too great.

Advocates and opponents of female cosmonauts are currently engaging in heated discussions about the issue on the internet.

“Every human quality is needed if space is to be conquered, and that requires the participation of men and women,” wrote one user on a Russian website.

“Women at the helm of a spaceship? They can't even park a car on Earth,” was the reply of another.

“Women certainly can't be considered worse astronauts,” Sonja Rohde told dpa.

The 36-year-old German paid 200,000 dollars for a ticket into space under billionaire Richard Branson's private space project.

“No other way is possible at the moment,” added Rohde, who is hoping to become the first German woman in space.

Tereshkova's flight into space on June 16, 1963, at the height of the Cold War, was presented as a political triumph by the Soviet Union.

The achievement followed on from the success of Sputnik becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the Earth in 1957 and Gagarin becoming the first human in space in 1961.

Kremlin leader Nikita Khrushchev declared Tereshkova's space flight as “proof of the equality of the sexes under socialism,” but it took almost another two decades before Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman in space, in 1982.

The Soviet Union may have collapsed but it seems many of the old beliefs about women in space are still alive and well.

The next Soyuz space capsule is scheduled for launch into space on November 14 with three men on board. - Sapa-dpa