Astronaut Scott Parazynski shown on his 7-hour, 19-minute spacewalk, the longest in history. He cut a snagged wire and installed homemade parts to strengthen solar panels that were damaged on the Space Shuttle Discovery. Without the repairs, the shuttle would not have been able to return to Earth. (AP Photo NASA)

Space Mission Makes History

Two women made space-flight history during October. They were the first two women to command different spacecrafts at the same time.

Pamela Melroy commanded Discovery during her two-week mission. The space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station on October 25.

There she met up with Peggy Whitson, the Commander of the space station since October 10. Whitson is commanding the Space Station for six months.

Forty-one women have flown in space for NASA. The NASA space program began 50 years ago. NASA accepted women as astronauts for the past 29 years.

Melroy is the second woman to command a shuttle. Whitson is the first to command a space station.
It is by chance that NASA assigned two women to command at the same time. 'This is a really special event for us,' Melroy said. 'There are enough women in the program that this can happen.'\

The work team from both spacecrafts attached a pressurized compartment to the space station. They did other complicated work. Melroy and Whitson supervised all work.

A crew of ten
Ten people make up the combined crew from both spacecrafts. Nine are men; one is a woman. Seven are Americans. The other three are from France, the Ukraine and Italy.

Eleven years ago, Shannon Lucid served as board engineer on Russia's space station Mir. She has a doctorate degree in biochemistry. A Russian cosmonaut was happy she went. 'We know that women like to clean,' he said then.

Whitson had not heard statements like this from Russian cosmonauts. She trained and worked with them. She thinks they are professional. 'So I think I am luckier. Shannon was probably breaking more barriers in that way than I have been,' she said.

NASA published interviews of Whitson and Melroy. These took place before the two went into space.

NASA was her childhood dream
Whitson wanted to work for NASA since she was 9 years old. That is when she saw the first people land on the moon in 1969. She is now 47.

Whitson said she received lots of support to follow her dreams. She said her parents encouraged her to do whatever interested her. 'So I tried,' she said in an interview.

Whitson grew up in rural south central Iowa. She earned an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry. Her doctorate is in biochemistry.

After graduation in 1985, she started working at the Johnson Space Center. She worked on several projects. She became head of the science program between the U.S. and Russia. NASA chose her to be an astronaut candidate in 1996.

'I have always said I have never had a real job, because I have always done what I wanted to do, which was work at NASA,' she said.

Melroy came from a much different background. Her father was in the military, so the family moved around a lot. They settled in New York State. Melroy is now 46 years old.

Her high school physics teacher inspired her, she said in the interview. Melroy majored in physics and astronomy for her undergraduate degree and minored in mathematics. She earned a master's degree in earth and planetary sciences.

Melroy was a combat pilot
She was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force in 1983. She trained to be a pilot. She flew missions in Just Cause, Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Melroy then trained to be a test pilot. There she decided to be an astronaut. NASA chose her as a candidate in 1994.

'I think there's something that is profoundly moving about the idea of exploring,' Melroy said.

Sources: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article by Marcia Dunn and www.nasa.gov