Released
It's not shocking that the U.S. Space and Rocket Center's Space Camp can claim a number of spacefarers in their vast group of alumni. To date, three Space Camp graduates have actually gone to space, while two others are active in the astronaut corps awaiting their turn. The surprising fact: all five of them are women.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins joined fellow NASA astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenberger and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti as Space Camp's spacefaring graduates when Rubins made it to space on July 13, 2016. Serena Aunon and Christina Hammock Koch are also Space Camp graduates currently active in NASA's Astronaut Corps, but they haven't made it to space yet.
Purely statistically, all five astronaut grads being the same gender is extremely unlikely. It's even more unlikely that they're all women - young women are far less likely to pursue science-related careers. While it could just be serendipity, it's not unlikely that there's something that they're doing right at Space Camp to show young women that they, too can do what the boys do.
"A lot of the programs that we have integrated in here do give them that realistic view of 'hey, this is what I want to do, I do like this, I do believe I can do it,'" said Celeste Hird, a Crew Trainer at Space Camp. "'Hey, if Samantha Cristoforetti did it, so can I. If Kate Rubins is now going there, so can I.'"
That's already inspired 7th Grader Lauren Driver, a four-time Space Camper from Nashville.
"It makes me proud because I am a girl and I would love to grow up to be an astronaut or an aerospace engineer, and so to prove that maybe not just boys can do it, that I can do it if I really set my mind to it," Driver said.
While stigmas against women in the science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields are starting to fade, young girls tend to still be herded away from those fields, either by their parents or their peers.
"People always kind of underestimate that we can be engaged in the sciences rather than thinking we can just be like in dancing or the arts or singing, but we can do anything that we put our mind to," Driver said.
Maybe some of it has to do with the kind of girls that go to Space Camp.
"When females do come, they do seem more focused on this is what I want to do and I'm gonna go for it," said Hird.
"We're building rockets and we're doing all these things and we can step up and show people what to do even if the boys are just kind of off in the corner," Driver said.
But something can be attributed to what Space Camp has done. Many mixed-gender groups might see the boys take the lead at first, but crew trainers encourage girls to take the lead as well.
"When I have a female on the team, I put them purposely as commander because I would like to see how they will take a leading role and how they will deal with it with everyone else supporting them," Hird said.
Normally, the trainers see that pay off.
"You tend to see them become a little more vocal throughout the week, which is really excellent," Hird said.