As I write this China's first female astronaut is orbiting the planet. ( for more go to: http://news.yahoo.com/china-puts-first-woman-astronaut-orbit-105154354.html ). Now I respect the how sharp this woman must be to have risen to such a position in a country where brutal competition is the order of the day and I certainly do not mean to diminish China's space ambitions (you can just feel a big 'BUT' coming can't you?) but is this anything more than an effort to start chalking up political 'firsts'?
Russia put the first woman in space almost 50 years ago. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space in Vostock 6 on 16 June 1963 (becoming both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in space). Her flight was considered more of a political publicity stunt by western observers (despite having groomed a group of American female astronauts to mirror the Mercury 7, none of whom ever flew in space; hey, it was the macho 60s) and NASA was not really interested in competing with Russia on seemingly minor political or public relations stunts. As a result of NASA's unwavering comminttment to the moon landing, the Russians racked up a series of 'firsts' in space flight. First to get man into psace (Gagarin in Vostock), first to get a man into orbit (Titov in Vostock: technically Gagarin did not complete a full orbit and)), first to launch a 2 man and then 3 man crew (Voshkod), first woman in space (Tereshkova), first space walk (Alexi Leonov) and the first space stations. Meanwhile the Americans were taking a much more 'long term goal' oriented approach that made these advances in a logical progression (not based on concerns about being the first to perfom them).
While the Russians were racking up public relations victories with a series of 'firsts' the Americans were very methodically making important material advances and following up on them. An example was the early space walks. While Leonov basically bobbed around for 10 minutes before getting back in (which he alost was unable to do) American space walkers were learning to do real work on their extra vehicular activities (EVAs aka space walks).
After a while the Russians ran out of realtively easy and affordable 'firsts' and the Americans began to eclipse them in world headlines. When Apollo 8 orbited the moon the Russians had nothing worthwhile to come back with. They had ended their own lunar program when they realized the cost was prohibitive (and following the the loss of two of their N-1 moon rockets). The USSR decided to concentrate on more affordable things like space stations. When America landed men on the moon, the USA had won the space race. The space race ended up being the kind of competition where the first guy off blocks sprints pass the grand stand grinning at the audience only to have the steady, well paced runner eventually eclipse him for the win.
NASA did finally put a woman awoman in space, the late Dr. Sally Ride, in 1983 (she passed away from cancer in July, 2012). Dr. Ride had a PhD in Physics was was chosen out a group of 8,000 candidates, many of them also women. Since then numerous women have flown into space and 4 have died in the effort (In the space shuttle Challenger, teacher Christa McAuliffe, and Judith Resnik died, January 1986. In February 2003, Lauren B. Clark and Kalpana Chawla were killed during re-entry of the shuttle Columbia).
Now China, only a mere 5 decades behind the west, is repeating the same story. Orbit a few guys, toss up a girl for a few orbits; then we'll see a 2 or 3 man ship and a few space walks perhaps followed by a small space station (or they can just buy our share of the ISS in exchange for retiring someof our debt). Eventually they may actually make it to the moon. If they do, hurray for them. When they get there, if they could visit the Apollo 11 landing site and be so kind as to put the American flag back up. I think Neil and Buzz's rocket motor knocked it over when they left....in 1969!
