A Russian female cosmonaut who will be the first women to enter space since 1997 has been forced to reproach journalists for repeatedly asking her questions about her hair.
Yelena Serova will become the country’s fourth woman – and first in 17 years – to go to space when she travels to the international space station this week.
The 38-year old, who should be celebrating the massive achievement was instead left angry, when she felt journalists showed more interested in how she’d look after her hair on board the ISS.
Ms Serova, who studied engineering at the Moscow Aviation Institute before working as an engineer at the spaceship manufacturers RKK Energia, put the questions back onto reporters saying:
“Can I ask a question, too? Aren’t you interested in the hairstyles of my colleagues?
“My flight is my job. I’ll be the first Russian woman who will fly to the ISS.
“I feel a huge responsibility towards the people who taught and trained us and I want to tell them: we won’t let you down.”
The backlash comes as Igor Marinin, editor of Russian magazine Space News, said Russia had been reluctant to use female cosmonauts for a number of years because they were deemed too weak for ‘men’s work’:
“Six months with five men in a confined space is complicated. Lena is a charming, attractive woman.”
