Page 47 - World Airnews September 2020 Edition

WOMEN IN WOMEN IN
AVIATION AVIATION

BRINGING GENDER GIANT LEAPS Artemis programme aims to put the first but they told me I should become a doctor

or a teacher,” Farah Alibay, an aerospace en-
woman on the moon. The name is symbol-
When the Mercury Seven, NASA’s first class
of astronauts, were announced in 1959, they ic. In Greek myth, Artemis was the twin sis- gineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Los Angeles, told the Huffington Post.

EQUITY TO SPACE were all active duty military test pilots. ter of Apollo, namesake of the programme become engineers or astronauts.”
that put the first men on the moon.
“We never tell little girls that they should

John Glenn and Alan Shepard were two
of the famous names among them. Since
While symbolism is good, achieving
women weren’t allowed to be military gender equity in space will require more Alibay is part of the team that sent the
test pilots, none of the more than 500 than symbols. It will require more break- Perseverance rover to Mars in July. The
candidates considered was female. Gender throughs like Astronaut Group 21 and engineers who never leave the ground are
equity wasn’t even a possibility. putting women on the moon. just as vital to the success of missions, and

pace: the final frontier. We’ve called It wasn’t because women couldn’t do the job. they are beginning to get their due with the

Sit that since “Star Trek” popularised In fact, Randolph Lovelace, the doctor in charge STEM EDUCATION renaming of the NASA’s Washington, DC
the phrase in the 1960s. Captain Kirk’s open- of examinations for the Mercury Project, began Getting more women into space - or even headquarters after Mary W. Jackson.

ing monologue recited the Enterprise’s mis- testing female pilots in 1960. Of 19 women he into control rooms on Earth - starts with She was NASA’s first Black female en-

sion “to boldly go where no man has gone tested, 13 passed – a better ratio than the 18 of STEM education and hiring practices. The US gineer and depicted in the book and film

before.” But it wasn’t just men aboard the 32 men who passed Lovelace’s tests. National Science Board found that in 2015, of ‘Hidden Figures’. Gender equity is not the
Enterprise. Several women played key roles Lovelace’s reasoning for testing women was the people in the workforce whose highest only imbalance that can be shifted. Racial

on board, and “Star Trek” was ahead of its still pretty sexist. He was looking for potential degree was in science and engineering fields, inequity in space is also an issue.

time in social commentary and showcasing space secretaries, telephone operators and 40% were women. Yet women made up 28% “It is still unbelievable to me that we have

people of colour. It was also well ahead of lab assistants, Margaret Weitekamp, author of of the science and engineering workforce. flown only 11 Black males and three Black

the real-life space programme at NASA. Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Wom- Both figures were trending positively from females in space out of 350 U.S. astro-

In the intervening decades, a lot has en in Space Program told The Atlantic. 1993. But in engineering, physical science, and nauts,” former NASA deputy administrator

changed on that front, but there is still But when the Soviets successfully sent computer/mathematical science fields, men still and Brooke Owens Fellowship founder Lori

make up a large percentage of the workforce.

plenty of work to be done. Space might still Valentina Tereshkova on a solo mission in Garver told Space News. “It’s shameful.”

be the final frontier for gender equity. 1963, the myth that women couldn’t be as- Achieving gender equity means hiring The fellowship’s efforts have helped lead

In the spring of 2019, Anne McClain and tronauts was pretty much busted. It would more women in these fields and encourag- to Virgin Galactic’s pledge of a (US) $100,000

Christina Koch were set to perform the first still be another 20 years before the US sent ing more girls to enter them as students. scholarship for blacks pursuing aero-

all-female space walk outside the Interna- Sally Ride into space, however. Each year, Delta Airlines flies an all-female space-focused STEM degrees. Just as diversi-

tional Space Station. Then a problem arose. As Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce crew to Houston with a plane full of girls head- ty brings more success to the boardroom, it

Both fit better in medium-sized upper torso NASA astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir work on put it in 1964, “The US could have been ed to NASA for International Girls in Aviation does so in charting the final frontier. Q

spacesuit assemblies. While there were their US spacesuits ahead of a spacewalk they conducted to install first to put a woman up in space simply by Day on October 5. Last year’s flight brought

two mediums aboard, only one had been new lithium-ion batteries that store and distribute power collected deciding to do so.” 120 girls from Salt Lake City to tour NASA. This article was originally published on

prepped for a spacewalk. Instead, Nick from solar arrays on the station’s Port-6 truss structure Sixty years after Luce’s statement, NASA’s “When I was little, I was good at school, thebossmagazine.com.

Hague replaced McClain on the walk.
Depending on your perspective, you

might see the incident as an amusing SPACE

“wardrobe malfunction” and joke about
our ability to walk in space but not have
enough gear in the right size.
Or, you might see it as another sign of BOEING TO BUILD MORE SATELLITES

how institutions default to accommodating

men and make gender equity an after-

thought. NASA spacesuits come only in scale, service quality, and speed,” said connectivity across mission domains.
medium, large and extra large. Chris Johnson, president of Boeing Com- “As SES expands the O3b mPOWER

When a technical glitch forced a redesign oeing has received a contract mercial Satellite Systems. constellation from seven to 11 satellites,

in the 1990s, none of the astronauts on the Bto build four additi onal 702X “We’re grateful for SES’s confidence in Boeing and SES have agreed to collab-

roster at the time needed a small. So they satellites from SES as the leading global our team and our newest portfolio of 702X orate to develop commercially-based

just never made one. content connectivity provider increases satellite systems, and for the opportunity service offerings and capabilities for

As McClain’s case shows, they’re not ex- the number of O3b mPOWER satellites in to enable the connectivity end-users need the US Government.” said Steve Collar,

actly flush with mediums, either. To be fair, its Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) to 11. to innovate, communicate and thrive.” CEO of SES. “We have built our network

the suits cost millions of dollars to make, These four additional O3b mPOWER SES’ O3b mPOWER software-de- around a multi-orbit, multi-frequency,

but budget decisions often are hidden fac- satellites will enhance SES’s next-gener- fined satellites are based on Boeing’s high-throughput, flexible and open archi-

tors that re-inforce unequal representation ation MEO constellation throughput and multi-orbit 702X satellite portfolio, which tecture increasingly of value to Govern-

ment users. We are looking forward to the

in institutions. efficiency as well as expand its unique ca- employs Boeing’s most advanced digital

Koch and Jessica Meir eventually per- pabilities to deliver connectivity services payload to date. The O3b mPOWER first launch of O3b mPOWER and excited
to extend our partnership with Boeing.”

formed the first all-female spacewalk last ranging from 50Mbps to multiple gigabits satellite constellation will integrate with

October. Those three women, along with per second to a single user. existing network architectures to deliver The 702X is a family of software-defined
Nicole Mann, were part of the historic The system will allow telecommunications global, end-to-end managed network satellites that incorporates digital proces-

Astronaut Group 21 class in 2013. companies, mobile network operators, gov- services on land, sea and in the air. sors, advanced thermal management, op-
timized manufacturing technologies and

The group has four men and four women, Mary W Jackson, aerospace engineer in the large supersonic tunnels branch ernments, enterprises, aircraft and ship op- Additionally, Boeing and SES have simplified ground resource management

the first time a NASA astronaut class fea- of full-scale research division, explains the facilities used in testing research erators, and more, to connect with their core agreed to collaborate to develop commer- tools. With thousands of beams that are

tured as many women as men. models such as SCAT. The guidance counseling class from Hampton Institute network or extend cloud access worldwide. cially-based service offerings and capa- formed in real time and can be pointed

bilities that can be derived from current

The 2017 class, Astronaut Group 22, visited the center on July 30 and toured a number of facilities. The purpose of Boeing is currently building the first seven and future SES MEO satellites. Working and shaped where needed, 702X allows

brought in another five women astronaut the visit was to provide the counselors an opportunity to see areas of work O3b mPOWER satellites for SES. The first set together, the companies will develop re- operators the flexibility to specifically

out of 12 total. These are monumental representing fields in which their students might be employed. The group, of satellites will be launched in late 2021. silient, interoperable MILSATCOM-COM- distribute power and bandwidth among

steps, to be sure, but of the 48 astronauts under the direction of Professor Fissell Jones (Left, back row) of Hampton “Our partnership with SES provides SATCOM architectures to provide U.S. users, maximizing useable capacity and

NASA lists as eligible for flight assignment, Institute, represented the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and its customers with a major advantage in and other government users with robust eliminating wasted energy. Q

only a third are female. Georgia. In 1958 Mary Jackson became NASAÕs first black female engineer

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