Field Notes: GM at MAKERS: Women in Space

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Last night I attended a Community Cinema screening of MAKERS: Women in Space at the Crawford Family Forum as part of the 2014 AxS Festival.

MAKERS: Women in Space with Rev. Dr. Bear Ride & Joanne Griffith
MAKERS: Women in Space with Rev. Dr. Bear Ride & Joanne Griffith

What is something new that you learned?
Although women were banned from the NASA program because they couldn’t be military jet pilots, there was an initial push to include women in the space program because they were smaller. Less mass equalled less fuel to propel a female into space and less fuel to lift the fuel itself.

What story did you encounter that captured your imagination?
One of the women selected by Dr. Lovelace to be suited for space (perhaps even more so than a man) spent over 10 hours in an isolation tank during medical testing. 10 hours?!?! I don’t think I could tank 10 seconds! What did she dream of during that day? Was she sleeping? Did she sing to herself? How can anyone lay that still in such sterile conditions?

What question did you leave with? What do you now want to know about or explore further?
After the screening, Rev. Dr. Bear Ride–sister of the most famous female astronaut in the world Sally Ride–spoke with Joanne Griffin about how her parents raised two such extraordinary daughters. Turns out, 90-year-old Mrs. Ride was also in the audience. Mrs. Ride answered quietly, “Benign neglect.” I wanted to spend another hour listening to Mrs. Ride. She could, after all, tell us about the Russian lessons she’s taking. Simply wonderful.

What challenged you during the event? [either frustrated you, something you wanted more of/less of, etc]
As a scientifically minded girl, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of this history, but I really knew nothing. Now I absolutely have to read Lynn Sherr’s official biography of Sally Ride.

IMG270If there were a section of the experience that you could bring to life around you, what would it be? (the Mary Poppins “jump into the sidewalk chalk picture” question)
I’d love to go inside the mind of Frances “Poppy” Northcutt–the only female engineer on Apollo 8. Fetchingly attired in a Mad Men-esque jacket, this “computress” singlehandedly read every line of code so she could reverse engineer the return of the module back to Earth. Now that’s a woman whose head I want to be in!

Write a headline for your experience today.
The Sky Isn’t The Limit

If you could have brought someone, living or dead, to the event with you today, who would it be and why?
I would have brought my four-year-old nephew. He may not have understood the film, but for a while he called himself Opportunity and called his little brother Spirit, so he’s totally “on board” for space travel. There’s a moment in the film when Director of Johnson Space Center Ellen Ochoa‘s son asks her, “Mommy? Can boys be astronauts, too?”

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