[ad_1]
(CNN) – Forget everything you've learned about men and Mars.
The chances are that the first person to land on the red planet will be a woman, the NASA chief recently said.
Jim Bridenstine was the guest of Science Science's science-and-technology radio show, when he said that a woman is "likely to be" the first person on March.
The NASA administrator did not identify any particular person, but said that women have a prominent place in the agency's future projects.
Bridenstine answered "absolutely" to a question from a Twitter user who asked if women would be included in the agency's next trip to the moon.
In fact, he said that the next person on the moon would probably be a woman as well.
"These are good days," he said.
NASA will also be making its first all-female run at the end of the month, when astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch will float in space.
The release in space will last about seven hours, according to the NASA website.
McClain and Koch were both in the 2013 astronaut class, half of whom were women. They came from the second largest group of candidates ever received by NASA – more than 6,100. The last category of flight directors also included 50% women, NASA said.
NASA has come a long way since 1978, when the first six women joined NASA's astronaut corps. Today, women account for 34 percent of NASA 's active astronauts, according to the agency.
"NASA is committed to ensuring we have a wide range of talent and we look forward to the first woman on the moon," said Bridenstine.
Good national month of women, indeed.
The-CNN-Wire
™ 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
[ad_2]
Source link