A New Day in Space

A cursory check of news sources showed this story is not getting the attention I believe it should. I ran across it initially on a very space-oriented site with it's 'echo' found on Agencie France Presse. Perhaps I am simply ahead of the curve and the coming day will see if it gains proper notoriety.

For the first time, women rule in space
CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP) — Breaking new ground in the history of space exploration, women are at the helm of the International Space Station and the space shuttle at the same time, as they orbit the Earth.

Pamela Melroy, a 46-year-old retired US Air Force colonel, was in the commander's seat when shuttle Discovery blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Tuesday.

She is only the second woman in the shuttle program's 26-year history to command the spacecraft, which is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Thursday for the most complex construction mission yet on the orbiting laboratory.

When latches open between the two crafts, Melroy and her six fellow shuttle astronauts will be greeted by an ISS crew led by another American, Peggy Whitson, a 47-year-old scientist and the first woman in charge of the station.

But this historic first, which was not planned, does not reflect the overall reality of the US space program, where women remain a minority and male culture predominates.
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