Pictured here are the four women astronauts who are currently floating around on the International Space Station. Four women on one space station! This represents progress for women, at long last, just as the Space Shuttle Program is coming to an end: With only three missions left to go before NASA's space shuttle program is permanently grounded, the crew members of Discovery STS-131 are some of the last astronauts who will ride one of the winged orbiter into space. The Space Shuttle Program is scheduled to end in September, when Discovery completes its final flight. . . . Pictured clockwise from the lower left are NASA astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Expedition 23 flight engineer; NASA astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Naoko Yamazaki and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson, all STS-131 mission specialists.
