The premise was promising—it was announced this week that six Russian female astronauts, ranging in ages 22 to 34, would live inside of a mock-spacecraft for a total of eight days as a test run for a Russian mission to the moon in 2029.
Prior to going into the spacecraft, the women (all of whom are experts in various fields such as biophysics and medicine) made an appearance at a press conference—but unfortunately, they were subjected to some pretty inane questions.
Before the press even had the opportunity to talk to the astronauts, we got this lovely gem from Igor Ushakov, the director of Moscow’s Institute of Biomedical Problems (which was hosting the test): “I’d like to wish you a lack of conflicts, even though they say that in one kitchen, two housewives find it hard to live together.” Oh, and it gets better—or should we just say mind-bogglingly worse?
The space crew was actually asked how they would cope without men or makeup for the eight-day period—but one member had a perfect answer. “Those who will take part in an experiment are not concerned there won’t be any men in their crew. We are here to do our job and we don’t have time to think about men,” said Anna Kussmaul.
Later, when the topic changed to the astronauts’ hair of all things, Kussmaul added, with an appropriate level of sarcasm: “I don’t know how we’ll survive without shampoo. Because even in this situation, we really want to stay looking pretty.”
Russia has a pretty dismal history when it comes to its female astronauts. Last year, they sent only their fourth female astronaut into space since the beginning of the space program in 1931. That’s only four female astronauts in a span of over 80 years. And even last year, that female astronaut, Yelena Serova, was asked about her hair and how she would be able to maintain its look in space—and of course, being the only female astronaut among her colleagues, was the only one who that ridiculous question got posed to.
Seriously? Is it possible to focus on what the women are actually there to do—namely, the science? We can do better than this. We should be doing better than this, especially by now.
(via The Verge, image via YouTube)
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