Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001

posted 03-11-2016 12:20 PM               

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In a first for NASA, an all-female crew of scientific experimenters began a five-day exercise on December 16, 1974, to test the feasibility of experiments that were later tested on the Spacelab missions. Dr. Mary H. Johnston (seated, left), Ann F. Whitaker and Carolyn S. Griner (standing, left to right), and the crew chief, Doris Chandler, spent eight hours each day of the mission in the Marshall Space Flight Center's General Purpose Laboratory (GPL).

They conducted 11 selected experiments in materials science to determine their practical application for Spacelab missions and to identify integration and operational problems that might occur on actual missions. The women worked under conditions simulating those that would exist in a space station, except weightlessness. Air circulation, temperature, humidity and other factors were carefully controlled.

Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005