The Privilege to Launch
Moonstruck
English - May 23, 2018 12:00 - 26 minutes - 57.8 MB - ★★★★ - 219 ratingsNatural Sciences Science History astronauts csis science smithsonian history space spaceflight Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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After the Soviet Union launched the first woman to space in 1963, the United States waited over twenty years to do the same. NASA didn't consider women for the earliest space missions, despite their proven ability to live and work in the space environment. Decades later, the NASA astronaut corps still faces diversity challenges. Poised to become the first African American to complete a full-duration mission to the International Space Station, astronaut Jeanette Epps was pulled from her launch in 2018, leaving another glass ceiling intact for African Americans in space.