The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on June 20 that pilot Pamela Ann Melroy will be the second woman in the world to command the spacecraft Atlantis, scheduled for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) next year.
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Pilot Pamela Ann Melroy (Photo: NASA) |
Colonel pilot Melroy will be joined by five other crew members to fly to the ISS aboard the Atlantis spacecraft at the end of 2007, transferring equipment to connect with scientific laboratories from Japan and Europe.
The other crew members include George Zamka, Scott Parazynski, Doug Wheelock, Mike Foreman, and Paolo Nespoli.
This will be Melroy’s third trip into space, but her first as commander. At 44 years old, Melroy holds a master’s degree in planetary and Earth sciences and previously flew into space in 2000 and 2002.
Globally, Eileen Collins was the first female astronaut to travel into space in 1995. She later became the first woman to command the Columbia spacecraft in 1999. Collins retired in May 2006.
It is also known that NASA is preparing to launch the Discovery spacecraft for the second time on July 1, despite concerns regarding the safety of the shuttle following previous launches, particularly the Columbia disaster in 2003.
In February 2003, the Columbia space shuttle was destroyed shortly after launch, resulting in the deaths of all seven American astronauts on board. This incident was a tragedy for the U.S. space exploration program. Following this, NASA halted all shuttle launches to reassess safety requirements.
