All-Female Shuttle Crew Considered

Come 2001, women may have an inside track in the macho world of space. Within the next two years, NASA may be flying all-female space shuttle crews--for science.

With a new space station on the horizon and increasing talk of trips to Mars, NASA wants to make sure it protects the health of all of its astronauts, male and female. But just as with Earth-bound medical research, most of what it knows has been gleaned from men, and projecting results onto women could be dangerous.

Weightlessness, for instance, is known to cause bone loss in both sexes, and because women are at greater risk of osteoporosis, theory might suggest women in space load up on calcium. But that could create kidney stones, points out Dr. Arnauld Nicogossian, the space agency’s top doctor.

Other areas of concern, for both sexes, include radiation and the weakening of the immune system in weightlessness.

Millie Hughes-Fulford, a University of California professor who flew on the space shuttle in 1991, would love to see an all-female crew. As an osteoporosis researcher, she’d be especially interested in whether women lose bone and calcium at the same rate in space as men.

“That would probably be the biggest argument against women going to Mars. ‘Oh, my dear, you’re getting much too close to menopause and you’re going to lose all that bone when you’re gone,’ ” she said.

NASA is seeking multiple second opinions to determine whether more gender-specific research is needed. The study should be completed by the end of June. After reviewing the findings, “then we’ll decide if it makes sense to have a mission dedicated specifically to fly women and how often we have to continue that type of mission,” Nicogossian said.

It wasn’t until the last few years that NASA could even consider putting together an all-female crew. Every shuttle mission requires two pilots, and NASA only recently added its second and third female shuttle pilots. The 119 current astronauts include 29 women.

“Sooner or later it’s going to happen” whether it’s deliberate or not, said shuttle program director William Readdy.