"Why no women on this crew 🥺??" "Ew why is the crew all men??" "What about all the little girls who look up to Christina??" "Where are the women???" I'm sorry, but If I hear this one more time I'm actually going to loose it.
Like–I'll admit I was hoping for a female commander–but that's because I was hoping for either Nicole Aunapu Mann or Anne McClain specifically. Not just... A Woman. I've seen so many people mad that there isn't a woman on this crew, but not that a specific astronaut they like isn't on the crew, they just wanted a woman, they don't care who. But the thing is, putting women on the crew just to have women on the crew isn't feminism–it's a lazy performance to give the illusion of equality.
They chose the best crew for this mission, just like they did for Artemis 2. Every member of this crew is extremely qualified for the job. I highly recommend you go read each of their Wikipedia pages/bios from the agencies–I'd list their career highlights here, but that would probably double the length of this already long post.
I'm certain that Nicole and Anne and everyone else will get their chance for an Artemis mission soon!!! NASA has already said that this program will land women on the moon.
This is the exact same argument that has been going on since the 60s. Neil Armstrong wasn't the first on the moon because he was a civilian–he was first because he was the best for that mission. Sally Ride wasn't on STS-7 because she was a woman–she was there because she was highly skilled in operating the shuttle's Canadarm, a necessary skillset for that mission. Christina and Victor were on Artemis 2 because of their skills as pilots and engineers.
The idea that a direct decision whether or not to have a woman on the crew is made before choosing astronauts is not only ridiculous–It undermines the equal talent, skill, knowledge, and effort put in by all the astronauts. All of the female astronauts who get a crew assignment aren't there because they're ''The best...of the women'' or ''The most qualified for this mission...from the options of women'' They're on a mission because they're the best and most qualified person for the crew. That's it. No limiters. No extra criteria. No ifs, ands, or buts. They're the best.
I'd also like to point out the makeup of the current astronaut corps. NASA currently has 36 active astronauts, consisting of 15 women and 21 men. Nearly 60% of NASA's activite astronauts are men. Now, let's narrow that down even more: after removing the astronauts who are currently in space, who are already assigned to upcoming missions, and those who have just come off of a mission (aka the Artemis 2 crew/SpaceX crew-11), we're left with 25 astronauts–11 women and 15 men.
Out of those 25 eligible astronauts, Randy Bresnik has by far the most flight experience, having logged more than 6,000 hours on 81 different aircraft. The second highest flight time on that list was logged by Artemis 3 backup crew member Robert Hines, who has 3,500 hours of flight time. Out the eligible astronauts, Bresnik has the 3rd highest time spent doing EVAs (notably, both people with more EVA experience are also men), Rubio holds the current record for the longest American spaceflight, and Douglas is the only one of the 25 to have previous experience on an Artemis crew. My knowledge is mainly on NASA, so I don't know exactly how Luca Parmitano compares to other ESA astronauts, but again–read an overview of his career and you'll see that he is extremely qualified.
Now–should we be discussing why it is that women are still outnumbered in most STEM jobs, and why it is that the most qualified people for this mission are all men?? Absolutely. But that's not a problem to take to NASA, nor a burden for this crew to bear. The fact that so many STEM positions are held by men is an issue that goes way deeper into the industry than NASA itself, but, because nasa is such a public organization, they get the anger directed at them. It's always been this way. That's how it worked in the days of the Mercury 13–and that's how it works now with Artemis. We've been having this argument since 1959, and the answer has always been the same: we should be talking about why nasa has more men than women, but at the same time we have to recognize that nasa hires the most qualified people for the job. What we really need to be asking is why is that who's most qualified?
I'd also like to point out, even if the astronaut corps was split exactly 50/50, there will always be missions with all men, and missions with all women. During Apollo when almost all of the astronauts were former military pilots, they were split nearly nearly exactly half & half between the Air Force and Navy. Almost every mission had at least one astronaut from each branch, but Apollo 12 still had an all Navy crew and 15 was all Air Force. Because that's just how it works when you choose people based on experience.
Another thing–just because these 5 crewmembers are men doesn't mean that the female involvement in the mission/program is gone. We all saw how many women were in mission control during Artemis 2. We've come a long way from JoAnn Morgan and Poppy Northcutt sitting in control rooms full of men, and that is something to be celebrated. Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is still launch director. There are women working as flight directors, mission controlers, engineers, scientists, mission planners, trainers, builders, CapComs, and just about every other job you could think of through every level of NASA's team–and the Artemis 3 mission will be no exception. The Artemis 3 crewmembers are just the 5 people who get put out front–a program like Artemis requires effort from tens of thousands of people, who all deserve at least as much recognition as the astronauts. There are more women working on this program–in so many ways, big and small, from every level of the organization–than we even realize.
Something else that people seem to forget is that Artemis is not the only crewed space program. Right now, as I type this, there are 10 people in space, 3 of whom are women. As of right now, there are two women on the International Space Station, and one on the Chinese Tiangong Space Station (Sophie Adenot & Jessica Meir on ISS // Lai Ka-ying on TSS). Jessica Meir is scheduled to take command of the International Space Station next month. Anna Kikina, a female cosmonaut is also scheduled to arrive on the ISS next month. Women have not lost our place in space–in fact, our place is expanding.
We still remember and talk about the accomplishments of Margaret Hamilton, Katherine Johnson, Poppy Northcutt, JoAnn Morgan, Eleanor Foraker, and all the other amazing women who worked on the Apollo program nearly 60 years ago, there's no reason for us to forget or ignore the accomplishments of women who are making history right in front of our eyes. If they are forgotten in history, it's because we chose to let it happen.
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