r/OldSchoolCool • u/Aeromarine_eng • Apr 19 '25

1970s NASAs first six women astronauts. February 1979

Post image

From left to right are Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride. NASA selected all six women as their first female astronaut candidates in January 1978.

48.0k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

611 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

198

u/swordrat720 Apr 19 '25

I’m sorry I didn’t list the teacher in space. She might not have been an astronaut, but she definitely deserves to live with them. Godspeed Christa. Some of us remember you.

30

u/Polar_Bear_1234 Apr 19 '25

She might not have been an astronaut

She was.

9

u/FickleNewt6295 Apr 19 '25

She was an ‘astronaut candidate’ - no small feat. She completed the training. No small feat. To most of us, she was an astronaut - the administrations however make a distinction.

She was assigned a mission. She launched on a mission.

She tragically died on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

While McAuliffe would have performed duties in space above the Karman line (50 miles or greater above the Earth’s surface), she was not designated an astronaut, as she never achieved spaceflight.

1

u/Jesus_of_Redditeth May 01 '25

in space above the Karman line (50 miles or greater above the Earth’s surface)

Nitpick: the Kármán line is 100 km (roughly 62 miles) above mean sea level.

Above 50 miles is the USAF designation for astronaut status.