>>11042777To be fair, Apollo and everything leading up to it was motivated at its root by "political bullshit". You can get a lot done when you're concerned with dickwaving. To your point however, the men succeeded or failed by individual merit. Besides, any woman taken into space is payload/ballast at all events, so it's a bit moot to grouse about the politics of placing such-and-such ballast on the lunar surface. Women are things.
I prefer to make a more optimistic interpretation of things, which is not of course the real intent, but which is a thought as comforting as it is amusing: "We are going to put a woman on the surface of the moon. Not as a political program for diversity, but as a proof that we are so superior, that we can even afford to place such hazardous ballast there, under male supervision." If she survives, great. If not, cold water is thrown on the idea of women in spaceflight. Either way, we win.
Also, whoever should next step foot on the Lunar surface, will be the 13th person to have done so. Given NASA's track record with the number 13, if I'm the commander, I would be more than happy to defer to the ballast, for this reason.
