With two female spacecraft commanders set to meet Thursday in Earth orbit for the first time in history, one NASA astronaut sent out a cosmic dedication to commemorate the event.

U.S. astronaut Clayton Anderson, an Expedition 16 flight engineer aboard the International Space Station (ISS), dedicated the ‘80s hit “Whip it!” by Devo to ISS commander Peggy Whitson and shuttle Discovery commander Pamela Melroy.

“Today’s long distance dedication from KISS radio goes out to the first two female commanders in the history of the space program, “Pambo” Pam Melroy and Peggy “The Boss” Whitson,” Anderson said. “Peggy with her whip, and Pambo with her lightsaber, I’m getting pretty darn worried up here.”

Melroy is NASA’s second female space shuttle commander and is flying, by chance, at the same time as Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson - the first female commander of the ISS. Whitson was presented with a ceremonial whip before launching to the ISS from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Oct. 10.

Aboard Melroy’s Discovery shuttle, a prop lightsaber is tucked away. It was used in the “Star Wars” science fiction film series by Luke Skywalker (portrayed by actor Mark Hamill) and is flying as part of the 30th anniversary of the 1977 debut of the first “Star Wars” movie.

“Can I trade my Flight Engineer 2?” Whitson asked jokingly, referring to Anderson. “At least he’s entertaining to be around.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Society, Space & Astronomy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.