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Women will call the shots during shuttle mission
* Women commanding upcoming shuttle mission and current ISS crew
* Discovery commander Pamela Melroy and ISS commander Peggy Whitson
* It's not a public relations gimmick cooked up by NASA -- just a coincidence
* Melroy, 46, is a former test pilot and Whitson, 47, a biochemist with a Ph.D.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- A giant leap is about to be made for womankind.
When space shuttle Discovery blasts off Tuesday, a woman will be sitting in the commander's seat. And up at the international space station, a female skipper will be waiting to greet her.
It will be the first time in the 50-year history of spaceflight that two women are in charge of two spacecraft at the same time.
This is no public relations gimmick cooked up by NASA. It's coincidence, which pleases shuttle commander Pamela Melroy and station commander Peggy Whitson.
"To me, that's one of the best parts about it," said Melroy, a retired Air Force colonel who will be only the second woman to command a space shuttle flight. "This is not something that was planned or orchestrated in any way."
Indeed, Melroy's two-week space station construction mission was originally supposed to be done before Whitson's six-month expedition.
"This is a really special event for us," Melroy said. "... There are enough women in the program that coincidentally this can happen, and that is a wonderful thing. It says a lot about the first 50 years of spaceflight that this is where we're at."
Whitson -- the first woman to be in charge of a space station -- arrived at the orbital outpost on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on October 12. She flew there with two men, one a Russian cosmonaut who will spend the entire six months with her.
Before the launch, an official presented her with a traditional Kazakh whip to take with her. It's a symbol of power, Whitson explained, because of all the horseback and camel riding in Kazakhstan.
Smiling, she said she took the gift as a compliment and added: "I did think it was interesting though, that they talked a lot about the fact that they don't typically let women have these."
At least it wasn't a mop. The whip stayed behind on Earth.
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* Women commanding upcoming shuttle mission and current ISS crew
* Discovery commander Pamela Melroy and ISS commander Peggy Whitson
* It's not a public relations gimmick cooked up by NASA -- just a coincidence
* Melroy, 46, is a former test pilot and Whitson, 47, a biochemist with a Ph.D.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- A giant leap is about to be made for womankind.
When space shuttle Discovery blasts off Tuesday, a woman will be sitting in the commander's seat. And up at the international space station, a female skipper will be waiting to greet her.
It will be the first time in the 50-year history of spaceflight that two women are in charge of two spacecraft at the same time.
This is no public relations gimmick cooked up by NASA. It's coincidence, which pleases shuttle commander Pamela Melroy and station commander Peggy Whitson.
"To me, that's one of the best parts about it," said Melroy, a retired Air Force colonel who will be only the second woman to command a space shuttle flight. "This is not something that was planned or orchestrated in any way."
Indeed, Melroy's two-week space station construction mission was originally supposed to be done before Whitson's six-month expedition.
"This is a really special event for us," Melroy said. "... There are enough women in the program that coincidentally this can happen, and that is a wonderful thing. It says a lot about the first 50 years of spaceflight that this is where we're at."
Whitson -- the first woman to be in charge of a space station -- arrived at the orbital outpost on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on October 12. She flew there with two men, one a Russian cosmonaut who will spend the entire six months with her.
Before the launch, an official presented her with a traditional Kazakh whip to take with her. It's a symbol of power, Whitson explained, because of all the horseback and camel riding in Kazakhstan.
Smiling, she said she took the gift as a compliment and added: "I did think it was interesting though, that they talked a lot about the fact that they don't typically let women have these."
At least it wasn't a mop. The whip stayed behind on Earth.
>