What’s Next For Girls Who Want To Be Astronauts?

As the final Space Shuttle mission touched down last month, ending NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program, I wondered what would come next for women in aerospace. Without a clear, defined mission from NASA, I questioned where that leaves girls and young women who dream of becoming astronauts.

We all have to remember that, even with the end of NASA’s shuttle era, space exploration has not ended. There will be many opportunities for women in aerospace careers. It’s just a matter of reconfiguration. More private-sector companies will enter the space arena while NASA will focus on launching new devices to explore the outer reaches of our solar system and beyond. That means, the industry will still need smart, capable workers to fill engineering jobs. There will be many opportunities for women.

So even though we don’t have a space shuttle launch to point to, sparking girls’ interest in engineering must start early.

Waiting until middle school to introduce girls to the joys of physics and other engineering sciences could be too late. Many women in aerospace careers can trace their interest in the field to a meaningful childhood exposure to the sciences, either in a school setting or from a family member already involved in a scientific field.

Sandra Magnus, mission specialist and the only female aboard the final shuttle mission by Atlantis, was initially interested in physics, which became her undergraduate degree. “I was never exposed to it [engineering]. I thought engineers were people who drive trains, really, quite frankly, because there was no one in my family who was an engineer,” she explained in a 2008 NASA interview.

Magnus found her own path, but we must ensure that we make the sciences engaging, interesting and accessible to girls in order for them to carve a potential career path. For Magnus, who always wanted to know how things worked, after college she got a job working on aircraft and stealth technology. At night she worked toward a master’s degree in engineering. After earning her Ph.D in materials, she applied to NASA.

We must encourage girls to find “idols” in the sciences and show them that these are women making real and significant contributions to society. According to The Denver Post, the number of women nationally working today in aerospace-related fields is roughly 10 percent, and women make up about 18 percent of engineering students.

Earlier this year, NASA launched its Women@NASA website to showcase women’s achievements. This is a good start, but it’s up to us as teachers to show girls the contributions that have come from aerospace and other engineering fields. We all win when diverse voices and ideas are launched. Girls can indeed, make a significant, positive difference in society, and maybe, just maybe, leave the planet while doing so.

Barlow is an elementary school teacher in Connecticut.