First Female German Astronaut: A Commercial Human Spaceflight Initiative ASTRONAUTIN

摘要

In 1963, Russia sent Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman astronaut into space, followed 20 years later by the U.S.'s Sally Ride. In 1996, Claudie Haignerè was the first French woman to go into orbit. Today, half of the astronauts in the United States are women. All of the 11 astronauts sent by Germany on missions into space were men. In Germany, there are women with outstanding qualifications working in engineering and aerospace. In German auditoriums, >300,000 women are currently attending lectures in so-called science, technology, engineering, mathematics subjects. This untapped potential now needs to be exploited and society must continue to attract women and girls to space and technology. We want to turn the vision to fly a first female German astronaut (Astronautin) to International Space Station in 2020 into reality. The project will be financed by crowdfunding, in-kind contributions of major players in the space field, and sponsors from the business sector. The project pursues three goals: (1) A woman astronaut will bring new life to Germany's aerospace sector by attracting more women to engineering jobs. (2) This female astronaut will become a role model who will encourage women and girls to set their sights on aviation and aerospace. (3) During the mission, she will also conduct scientific experiments, focusing on medical tests designed to examine the female body's response to zero gravity. As a first step toward a first female German astronaut, a selection process has been conducted in 2016. A total of 400 female engineers and scientists have applied to become the first female German astronaut. “Astronautin” is a completely new way of conducting a human spaceflight project. “Astronautin” is a pilot project for a new type of human spaceflight mission. With the Astronautin project, we demonstrate that this new way of conducting space projects is also possible in Europe.