Passenger Added To Jeff Bezos' Planned Spaceflight Would Be the Oldest Person In Space (fortune.com) 44
Pioneering pilot Wally Funk, who was denied being an astronaut because of her gender, is joining Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on an upcoming space voyage by his rocket startup, Blue Origin. Fortune reports: The nation's first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector, whose formal name is Mary Wallace Funk, will be an "honored guest" for the July 20 launch of the New Shepard rocket, Blue Origin said Thursday. At 82, Funk would be the oldest person to ever reach space, the company said, shattering the current record held by John Glenn, the astronaut-turned-senator who went into orbit at 77. Other New Shepard crew members include Bezos's brother Mark Bezos and a yet-to-be revealed auction winner who is paying $28 million to be an astronaut. Funk, an airline pilot and instructor, was a member of the "Mercury 13," a team of 13 American women who went through formal astronaut training in the early 1960s. Despite the intense preparation, the women were barred from becoming astronauts because of a then-NASA requirement to only accept military fighter pilots, a position held exclusively by men.
Space wasn't Funky enough (Score:3)
Have a great time, Wally.
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The Air Force and NASA didn't block women from being astronauts. They admitted women to the training pipeline and were planning to have women astronauts.
It was LBJ who blocked them. The manned space program was 99% political, and LBJ wanted it to look "manly".
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It wasn't nearly that simple. NASA was absolutely refusing to accept women up to at least 1962:
https://www.thespacereview.com... [thespacereview.com]
And I'll be shocked there were any female test pilots in the Air Force until well after Apollo, or even any female pilots at all after the ferry pilots in WWII.
Re:Triggered (Score:5, Informative)
Facts will never win against Victims-by-proxy.
Meanwhile, in this century, men are actually being discriminated against 2-1 for college jobs:
https://www.pnas.org/content/1... [pnas.org]
That's not what the paper concludes. It showed that in an emailed survey, in some fields, professors ranked genders differently in their "hirability". They didn't actually hire anyone, they said that one candidate would be (slightly) more desirable than another. Why this stated preference seems to differ from actual hiring decisions might be an interesting line of inquiry. No discussion of possible differences between stated preference and actual hiring decisions. Drawing conclusions that one group is "discriminated against 2-1 for college jobs" is perhaps a bit of a stretch. The statement COULD be correct, but it could also be akin to: "frat-boys surveyed totally prefer a healthy salad 2-1 over bacon-wrapped hotdogs when asked by hot vegan chick" or "stereotypical racist groups says 2-1 that they are not at all racist".
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We could just talk about real-world numbers instead: "Fifty years ago, 58 percent of U.S. college students were men. Today, 56 percent are women, Education Department estimates show." (This was the Washington Post in 2019).
We could also talk about the advantages of steel roofs compared to shingles.
I clearly missed your point.
There are continued challenges in attempts to provide opportunities to all members of society in a just and equitable manner?
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100 years ago, 85% of black children had two married parents. Today, 75% of black children have only a single mother. Yeah, things change, not always for the better: it's the single largest factor in prison time, educational failures, chronic illness, teen pregnancy, gang membership, felony convictions, and drug addiction for all children in the USA. It far outweighs any other factor, especially race or ethnicity in and of itself.
Percentages can often be confusing, but that one dominates gender pay gaps an
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It showed discrimination against men 2-1 for college jobs.
Which is what I wrote.
Trying to finesse away the facts is typical of people who are in the wrong, know they are in the wrong AND DON'T CARE, because they are pushing their agenda.
Racists do it.
And feminaz1s do it.
Only feminaz1s are still getting away with it.
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He was worried that, if women were allowed in space, Lady Bird might get uppity.
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They admitted women to the training pipeline
When? In 1978? This is about early 60s.
The Justification for Mercury 13 (Score:5, Interesting)
"Mercury 13," a team of 13 American women who went through formal astronaut training in the early 1960s. Despite the intense preparation, the women were barred from becoming astronauts because of a then-NASA requirement to only accept military fighter pilots, a position held exclusively by men.
I'm genuinely curious, what exactly was the fucking point of the Mercury 13 program then? Was there some other astronaut-enabling entity operating in America in the 1960s?
Never mind. Turns out it was a "manly" LBJ.
Imagine how our space program would be if Kennedy avoided Vietnam and we put that focus on our space efforts. We've probably be living on Mars by now.
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No plot twist there, fellow fallible human. It was merely a typo.
Re: The Justification for Mercury 13 (Score:5, Insightful)
I just hope Bezos doesnt regret this if her age plays a role in the stress killing her during the flight. She will never be in the same condition we put other astronauts through. But then again his space program is more high-flying plane and less spacecraft, much like Bransons. Its designed to bilk billionaires out of their hard earned cash. Throw in a few boy-banders who want to get their fans to crowdfund it like the Jonas Brothers, and you have an elite band of whiners.
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Commercial aviation has a fatality rate of 0.27 deaths per million flights.
The Shuttle had 14 deaths in 135 flights.
Re: The Justification for Mercury 13 (Score:3)
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Re: The Justification for Mercury 13 (Score:2)
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The point was to prove that women could do it. There is still an assumption that women are just unsuited to some jobs and it was even more common back then.
Women couldn't become military pilots back then so there was simply no way to get into the programme. They wanted that changed, which would also have opened it up to civilian men. As it happens NASA did start sending civilians to the Moon to do science, but it wasn't until the 80s that women got to go to space with NASA.
To be fair the Soviets sent women
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I don't disagree, I was just saying that the Soviet space programme didn't have many women in it, most cosmonauts were men. It wasn't for lack of qualified women, it was just that they always selected men except for the odd "first" mission where they wanted to show their lead in the space race.
Valentina Tereshkova went up in 1963. After that there wasn't another woman in space until they sent up Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. I'm not sure exactly what the reason was because as you say there were qualified wom
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the Soviets had no shortage of woman fighter pilots to send into space. they didnt need to pull any stunts to have women in space.
The abundance of female fighter pilots must be why they picked a textile factory worker to send into orbit, right?
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The space program is run by the scientists
It's actually run by politicians.
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Imagine .. if Kennedy avoided Vietnam (Score:1)
Kennedy was going to withdraw from Vietnam, before he was assassinated by a lone gunman with no connection to the state security apparatus.
OT your sig is funny because it's true (Score:2)
You sig:
Your mamma's so fat she bends space-time.
It's funny because it's true [amnh.org].
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Oldest person with a vagina in Space ! (Score:1)
How many persons-with-a-penis on the program, never made it into space?
Is it overly cynical... (Score:2)
...to consider whether silencing the "don't let him return" crowd played at least some small part in the decision? I mean, you'd have to be some special kind of asshole to imply she should die up there, too, right? Regardless of his reasoning, it doesn't take away from the fact that it's pretty damn awesome she's getting the long overdue opportunity.
Super powers (Score:1)
When the cosmic storm cloud hits their shuttle, what powers will be imbued with her then?