BY AMY STOCKWELL
We’re calling it a space smackdown.
Early this morning Australian time, a Russian space shuttle blasted into space with three cosmonauts on board, bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
On board will be 38-year-old Yelena Serova, Russia’s first female ISS crew member and the first female cosmonaut in 17 years. Serova is a space engineer who has trained for seven years for this launch. So naturally all the press were interested in was how she was planning to wear her hair and how her daughter would feel why she was away.
In the days leading up to launch, the Russian media ran stories focussed on whether Serova would call her husband from space (it became a headline: “Russian female cosmonaut promised to call husband from orbit”) and what clothes she would bring with her (an article included a quote from the man who makes clothing for cosmonauts that included the line: “Her socks had to be custom-made because she has little feet.”)
On Wednesday, during a pre-launch press conference at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Serova, flanked by her male colleagues, was bombarded with questions about hair-washing and how she will manage to bond with her 17-year-old daughter while she is away.
Eventually the inaneness of the questions wore her down and she became our new hero when she threw back at the gathered throng:
“Aren’t you interested in my colleagues’ hair?
I will be the first Russian woman to fly to ISS. I feel a huge responsibility toward the people who trained us and I want to assure them: We won’t let you down!”
This woman is shooting into space. She has trained non-stop for almost a decade. She is an experienced space engineer. There have only been three cosmonauts before her.
Nobody cares about her socks, her hair or her phone habits.
This woman is at the top of her game. And thanks to Yelena Serova’s brilliant response, the world knows it.
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Top Comments
Sunita Williams, Katherine Coleman and
Karen L. Nybergare women and have all been up multiple times since 2011. Hardly 17 years for women in space.
The article doesn't say "17 years since a woman has been in space." It says "First female cosmonaut in 17 years." Cosmonaut (usually) means the person is Russian.
The three women you listed are all American.
She isn't the first female cosmonaut on the ISS in 17 years.