LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Space – the next frontier for gender equality? The European space agency launched a mission this week to take on more female astronauts as they embark on their first recruitment campaign for more than a decade.
Nearly 60 years since the first man went into space, women make up just 11% of the 560 people who traveled beyond the earth’s atmosphere, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs .
But following in NASA’s footsteps, the European Space Agency with headquarters in Paris (ESA) said it wanted to ensure greater diversity among astronauts.
“Representing all sections of our society is a matter of real concern to us,” said David Parker, the group’s director of human and robotic research.
“ESA diversity should not only address the origin, age, background or gender of our astronauts, but perhaps physical disabilities,” he said in a statement Monday.
NASA, the U.S. space agency, announced plans last year to send the first female astronaut to the moon by 2024 through their Artemis lunar program.
However, some have been wrong. NASA had to cancel its first female spacecraft in March 2019 because it did not have the right-sized space suit.
The historic spacewalk was completed later that year.
Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls; Edited by Helen Popper. Please give credit to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charity arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the world who are struggling to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.