inspired by the novel in t v series, the handmaids tale women march from parliament to the iranian embassy holding photos of women killed or jailed during the ongoing protests. before we got his, a reminder of the top story will follow and flee. russia has unleashed a massive missile barrage on cities across ukraine, reports coming in of explosions and keep going across the country with energy infrastructure targeted in the attacks. that's what we have time for, but don't film is up. next with the story of germany's 1st women, astronaut, i'm on the mac and an invalid. thank you for watching d w ah ah ah

ah, ah, ah. with no gravity, no atmosphere, with an endless vacuum of radiation, dust, magnetic fields, and amazing celestial bodies. where earth ends and the universe begins. space. the final frontier astrophysicist doctor's was on not under his training to take on the stars. the mission hasn't really changed from the beginning. the mission is to send the 1st female chairman, astro does space and it is actually quite interesting. i mean, i've always described myself as feminist, so i've always been very much for a quality he and the same women should be equal to men and men should be doing more

of this, this, this. but i never realized until i started with this program. how extremely women are still being discriminated against germany, in particular. susanna, under a space in her soul, and stars in her eyes. a scientist. she's fighting 21st century patriarchy so she can touch the sky. oh ah, you santa under wants to be the 1st german woman in space. so i was

always just fascinated by space and i'm not sure why because like no one in my family is in the remote is interested in space. why do you remember when i was about 8 or 9? and this is really a vivid memory. it's one of these memories i think that you make and then he repeats yourself so many times they become really ingrained in. yeah. and i was sitting at our breakfast table and we get this newspaper. the cleaner starts i got, and i remember seeing this really bad, black and white fight in the newspaper. it showed the surface of focus phobos is one of the moons of moss. and i was just actually looking at this, i was like, wow, this spaceship is actually gotten there and it's wanted to take 1st at the surface . and that was a moment for me when it's clicked. it's not a that we can also go that. and from that point on, i really became fascinated in earnest with space. susanna watches the space, x lodge, maybe one day she'll be on board. it's got the peanuts there. good luck. it's customary nasa mission controls always have both been us. for good luck,

re astronaut. a, i was never that good at maths of physics at school till really, really late. i mean i was much more the art c music hall, linguistic type as a place where the things that were encouraged and that i was good as well. and actually i had a bit of a dilemma because i really, i was fascinated by space and i knew i wanted to do something with space, but i always thought i'm not good at math of physics and that's just not going to happen for me. that was really how i spent most of my use and then i got a lucky break and away in 10th grade. so when i was about 16, i guess 15 or 16, i had a really motivated physics teacher. and somehow from like one week to the next, i went from being at best mediocre physics or to be really quite good because i was interested because i was motivated to also get my best and to met to work at it.

and all of a sudden i realized these categories that people put you in, you know, you can't do this, you're good at this, and you're bad at that various categories. the other people want to make up. they're not necessarily a true reflection of your in abilities. a lot of people say i talk to, he must be a smart might now i've got ph. d because i'm pig headed because you know i, i bulldozed myself through this because i forced myself to stick at it. not because i'm so smart when it's ready and that's what ph d does for you. really. i think forms your capacity to prevail against the odds. susanna has taken an unconventional path to become an astronaut. she's not connected to an international space agency like isa the european space agency. rather, she's part of a private organization called

d as to now to which hopes to send germany's 1st female astronaut into space. that's why she's kept her job at the european southern observatory. that means she's training alongside her full time job. mm. so basically in my position, isa, my job is kind of split. i'm an arc astronomer off is the alma regional center. so i was the telescope itself, these the antennas that are in chile. and we have this regional center in gushing, say my main job is supporting the other astronomers that are using alma and your and then a bit decoupled from that, as my own personal research. and then once a twice here, i'll actually go to the telescope the european southern observatory, or e or so sits 5000 meters above sea level. i'm a chalk, non toward collector in the chalet, in andes. that's part of my role,

alma and i will take observations again for other people. i'm with a telescope that is purely in service mode, which means that the people that want the observations don't actually travel themselves, but they have people like me. the travel for them that know the telescope, nath technical details that then execute the observations. make sure the data okay, and then send them the data. the alma telescope is part of one of the highest astronomical observatories in the world. this is one of the world's driest places to allow in a 13 ss at this altitude. suzana has to carry oxygen for the drive. this is a delta dental vehicle and you know, i tell mcdonalds and you are not from nevada. oh boy,

but you know from up here the astronomers have an incomparable view of the stars. but the working conditions are tough. ammonia, jenna, when hannah yoda, ms. hendricks was on the chest to undergo a medical checkup when she reaches the top of the mountain. the observatory is so high up that sues on his blood. oxygen has to be monitored. and the film team has to carry oxygen is always got sick. alma is a state of the art telescope. it studies light from the darkest depths of our universe. the telescope consists of 66, high precision antennae spread over 16 kilometers. alma is the world's most powerful telescope for observing molecular gas and dust,

the essential components of stars, planets, and galaxies. from the engineering side, of course, alma is incredible. we have 66 antennas that are working together. and there were a lot of problems at the beginning to do with the altitude as well as snow storms as high winds. since i was engineering, it's a huge fate. and but for me rating what tackler up there is, is probably the natural landscape. there's nothing growing at 5000 meters rights is like the on another planet. you have trouble breathing at the beginnings you have to get used to the altitude. it's really just an experience as completely outside of your comfort zone or your normal environment. few places on earth resemble mores or the mood as much as the geography surrounding the alma telescope. it was always in the back of my mind that i would like to be an astronaut, but it's not something you actively pursue, right. you have to wait for

a position to be advertised, basically. so in 2008, i saw an adverb that isa the european space agency. they were looking for a new generation of astronauts. i just moved to munich. i had just finished my ph. d and a couple of years because i didn't have very much work experience and i decided anyway, i would apply because these kind of job assessments come out every 15 years or so. so it was really a unique opportunity. and i applied on foot. i didn't get very far because basically i was very naive. i just didn't prepare myself. i made it to the 1st round, which any 10 percent of people made it into the tools. i mean, that was already in achievement. but rather than say, okay, i'm going to give it my best shot. i just kind of thought, oh, it's like an intelligence test. i can't really do much and i'll just see. and then of course i flunked the tests completely. i really rated myself for many, many years. i was really upset with myself that i just threw away that chance.

ready in 2016, i saw this ad words on the online, which is one of the big german online newspapers. i tend to read and i saw they're looking for the 1st female german astronauts as well. okay, cool. yeah, i might have a chance and i thought, well, even if i don't, doesn't matter. i've been so upset. i was so upset with myself for screwing up last time. i just have to pay for it. so in the end i sent in my occasion yes or nothing in because i'm wrong, thoughts, thoughts up design to get on to the thought of the city astronaut and is the only space start up in europe. that focusing on astronaut missions and marketing space flights. when i saw the 1969 moon landing on t v, i knew i wanted to be an astronaut. i'd never have thought that 50 years later, there would still be no german woman in the space. i might have been met. fi, i've spoken to many politicians and heads of space agencies and they all agreed.

but they said they couldn't do anything because they would know women in germany trained for this guy in the last ease, the selection in 2009, no german women were among the final candidates for women, doubt it. but remember that the selection criteria was set by a man with the selection committee and documents were very strongly male dominated . i listened to all that for a while. at the time i was managing director for personnel agency for aerospace engineers. finally, i'd had enough of that conversation for you, so i took things in hand to myself and posted a job. the 1st female jim and astronaut has opened the us that i chose for not after a while. they said, oh ok m you made it through the 1st round. we'd like to actually meet you. you have to fill in all these preliminary forms. and then after, i think about 6 months after i had applied, and i then went 3rd, 1st series of tests for the national flexion. and these were really quite tough

tests. i had a bit of an advantage ready because i knew it was coming because i had been to those tests in 2000 and 8 am. so i knew or the some basic guess wards myself. okay, i'm gonna do whatever i can. and if i don't make it, if i'm not smart enough, whatever fine, but i'm actually going to get my best shot this time. and i really prepared so there's all kinds of different questions ranges from basic english, which really was quite easy as they had to do an english test. and then you do math tests, basic physics questions. then there are all kinds of just general cognitive tests. we had tests the spatial awareness, those were shave for me among the most difficult ones. they had to do things like you had m. he had a di and that be across one side of the di and the deep nothing else, any of the other sites and the needs. this was all acoustic. see it here, ok, the cross of the top. and then there is a sequence of movements. so that's

a forward forward, back left, dr. fried forward back. where is the cross now? that was something that had actually in the test in 2008. and i just was completely, i mean i, i just, i'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons i didn't make it to the next round. basically i completely from down that one. i just, i was like, come, i mean i had no idea i'm but it's actually something you can train very well. so i did for like 3 weeks pool as test. i actually trained this. i made myself my own exercises right and worked out where the cross should be recorded them to myself and then just practice this ad nauseum. and it helped say, i mean all of these things can be trained. and after this 1st round, it went down to 31 in 3. people made it 3, but then the 2nd round, it was a bit more subtle. the 2nd round was more psychological. i was really psychological tests. say they had a bunch of psychologists interviewing you. and then you had teamwork exercises that

be these exercises were a conflict would be artificially generated and they wanted to see how you respond to the conflicts. i'm actually after that round, i was completely convinced that i had screwed up completely. i threw away all my vacation materials because i was convinced that was that i was out. i didn't want to remind her of this at all. and i just went to bed and i was like a fine. and then 2 days later they were like, oh, you made it to the next round of my what? so my 1st reaction was like, there's been a mistake. but then i thought i be stupid to point out mistake grips. i just sorry . okay. if that's what you think, fine. so the 1st thing i went was i ran down to the cellar, to k o, the application materials because they had all kinds of codes for the medical tests . and whatever was supposed to keep right, was really lucky that the rubbish hadn't been taken out basic yet. and i managed to retrieve from on the piles of other people's rubbish. a lot less, it was only the wastepaper race. it wasn't that disgusting. i managed to reached

retrieve my application details. there were 8 that was selected after those psychological tests from 30 it went down to 8 of the psychological tests. what came after that was the medical test? was that basically just tests in every part of the body and there was a very strong focus on the eyes. so that about half a day, if i tests, you know, all kinds of things, night vision and peripheral vision and all kinds of things. but basically just test that you are healthy. and then after these medical tests, which lasted 3 days, there was 66 out the aids made it through the medical tests. and those were the finalists that were then kind of presented to the public a whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa, gone. by the way, for you all. to come so close and to have invested so much and then to have it snatched away from you is yeah, really difficult. it was one of the worst days of my life. i but it was definitely i think one of the most difficult days but not so much the day was that it was the entire period that followed. i think because also i was very much a little bit deflated because i thought i kept it so much into this and you know, a lot of my goals planning for the future had been put on hold because i was fully invest and, and his whole selection process and then all of us another, okay, i'm back to, you know, the old thing and my where my really going with my job. but of course i was like okay, wow. yeah. so i'm here, i'm back where i started after

a year of intensive preparation. my, what am i gonna do now? so actually i had talked to my boss who's fantastic. he was very understanding throughout the whole thing. and i said, look, we have these partners in japan, and i was rolling out the new software, this aqua around the globe, basically. so i said, look, maybe it would work if i go to japan for couple of months, you know, get to know my japanese colleagues better, help them with a software. and for me personally, just get away from germany and from all the media and from everybody asked me questions. so i'm luckily here, great i'm, i mean he thought it was going to be also good for the department for my professional development, which in the end it was. and so he let me go to japan basically, and i was away for 2 and a half months basis just to get away from things get new ideas into my minds. just see different people have nobody know about the ass real thing basically are basically just escaped. i think that was the my thing. and then ironically the way it is sometimes just as i've got to japan, i've been in japan for

a couple of weeks. i started, you know, forgetting about it was so exciting being in japan or i so was different foods i couldn't understand anything. so had loads of other things on my mind, and that's when i got the email. and i just got his email saying, oh, do you still want to be an astronaut? nicola has quit. i actually waited a couple of hours just to let it sink in. and then irish bonaza. yeah. show i'm in . and then it went from huh. ah, it feels i fight health center on the buyer on. we've been at it since 2017 now and to external should train on the astronaut back. then we actually saw that the german government, oldest space agencies would jump on board fairly quickly and support the project manager level. sadly, that hasn't happened yet, but we're struggling through and we financed all the training privately so far. and

it's continuing. steadly, financier, it's wonderful. is us finding should 85 ah ah, info. teela. ike is the 2nd astronaut trainee. the married mother of 3 is a professional meteorologist in that on that. now. of course. excellent. my father, ace travel has always been in my life. my father went into space on s t s 99 and was a specialist on the shuttle radar topography mission, which is the topography dataset of the earth that i used to my ph. d in bangladesh . now that's why i became an astronaut because i've always watched what goes in to being an astronaut. not only the space flight, but all the science and research behind actual, honest me. my fascinates,

i've always found it fascinating with us and exciting math and learning so incredibly much and constantly pushing the borders of the possible evangelists out of it seems all thank heaven, we couldn't be much, tula, it's really comfortable. but there's not that much room for a height, it's perfect. ah, they, i give you a maximum fung on the initial response was very, very skeptical. many in the space travel fields, both in the d l. r and the isa said it was a crazy idea that the, the, i don't think that's true any all i think were taken very seriously in the international aerospace industry. because we've been around so long. because we've proven ourselves as a company in resistance to the venture

and to the plan to send a german woman into space means the astronaut training program is privately funded . it relies on donations and proceeds from lectures. that was landed, says was another flood fry. susanna came in 3rd place behind nicholas bowman and 1st and insert in 2nd grade. so nicolette ins that went into training in straight young from in late 2017 miss bauman left for personal reasons. love. i've been born jobs. christina, on the what is, was another susanna rejoined the program and to school shop incredibly quickly. how good i michelle feel. she's really thrown herself into the training to the starters behind your hang at the moment we're doing training in part time. so i'm still working my normal job

right, for 50 to 70 percent of my time. and then the remaining time i divide between all these t r events, fundraising activities, and the training. i'm probably doing about 15 to 20 percent training at the moment . and the idea is that once the funds secured, we're going to be able to divide ourselves 100 percent out watching time child training with learns and lots about how the ice is of rice, just about space flight in general. and about the politics, the space flight, most of it is really fascinating stuff. i think for me the actually highlights is still with the parabolic flights, but i got to do that was ab, just an experience unlike anything else i'd ever experienced. ah, so basically what happens in the parabolic flight as you have played is going in

steady flight ad. it then pulls up very suddenly and it makes the parabolic shape. and in the top part of this parabola, your waitlist. a say you really get to experience weightlessness in the same way and astronaut in

space and that was just indescribable. i mean it was, it was fantastic. it was like floating in a pool that you didn't have the resistance of the water. so you're still probably the highlights, all of the training you've done. i've really enjoyed much tougher. 50 the theory, you have to know a lot of theory, but it's been really rewarding. i mean, i've loved flying for a long time and now also get to fly. now and so the next thing that we have now in our agenda is timing i. we're gonna do a diving training get to where the space suits underwater and the app see how astronauts to space walks basically under water. there's also gonna me amazing with

a mm. hm mm hm. ah ah. is at the moment we're talking to both face x and boeing for the 2 new providers and hopefully start offering commercial flights for humans to go to the i s s. and then i would training is really gonna have to be customized. we fly with because these space vehicles are quite different. commands are quite different. so on, we do have a slot, a specific mission that's the provide is willing to sell to us and but yeah,

at the moment we're still trying to get the money. so if we gets a significant amount of cash, i'm talking about a couple of 1000000 maybe by the summer site than we would actually start the training in the autumn. and we'd probably moved to houston, texas to start full time training. so the idea is that we're full time training. it takes about a year to get to the standard, but you could actually fly in space. so we need about maybe a little bit. yes, less because we've done some training already. but with needs at least 9 or 10 months, full time training for giving up. the idea is, and i think that is pretty clear that both trainees will finish the training because the idea is not to kick one of them off. the idea is right to have a backup, so we'll have a prime candidate as a backup candidate that both will be asking all candidates and both will receive exactly the same training. i'm so if the prime candidates get sick has an accident,

whatever just before the launch, the other backup is fully trained and can just immediately, stephan. it's probably going to be quite difficult situation for the 2 of us once the selection has happened. and because of the moment we're on equal footing and we're good friends inside and i will get on very, very well. and it is going to obviously be a shift in the relationship once the selection is made. but i hope we can still work together very productively. i mean, we both want them to be success. so that the prime directive usa enzo and d asked one autumn have to raise some 50000000 euros for the space flight. so our problem is really money. it's very, very easy to summarize that money. so we derive our income from basically events that we give in the cloud. yeah, myself. i was to the other people in the team give talks against money. and so that's basically how we're keeping ourselves close at the moment. i do these events

and by receiving donations as well, we're basically staying afloat for the moment. and we're in a much better situation now than we were a year ago because we have enough to keep afloat comfortably and to continue with the training. but it costs about $50000000.00 to get a space, a window when they are having these $50000000.00. and of course that's a source of constant worry to us because we were all committed to making this mission to success. if all invested and lots of time and energy into this, and we want to see either in 0 myself up into space was the 1st german woman. and it's at this point, it's not yet clear that's going to happen just because the money. and we're hoping to fund the mission wire, i guess 3 pillars and away as the 1st of all the schools, the branding aspects. so large german companies would have to pay a lot of money to say we brought the 1st german woman to space. and then we have the science time that we can sell, obviously microgravity and provides

a unique environment in which to test a multitude of things i, you can do physiological experiments on the human body material science and all kinds of interesting experiments that are worth a lot of money to for relevant companies. and as i say, very important to us that we do scientific experiments that we just don't yourself as tourist because we want to show, okay, there are women, the scientists, the technical that can actually do these jobs. i'm so well also talking to companies that would then give us their experiments to do. and then also we're hoping that the politicians are, i mean german politicians are going to support us to help us show it with our message. there are women everywhere because germany apparently is committed to equality and is committed to getting more girls and women into the stem subjects and science technology engineering mathematics. and if they really want to puts the money where their mouth is, ah, we hope that they're going to help us to support this mission. since starting her

astronaut training, susanna has learned the hard way that in german professional, large men and women are neither socially nor financially equal. german claims of social equality or belied by facts and figures. susanna and d austell noted want to help change that because i've been working in a very is national environment. i left germany when i was 18. i went to the u. k. i went to canada and then i've been back in jim is the last 12 years, but i was working at isa, which is not a german institution. it's completely international. and so i've not really been exposed to the german working world until now until with us financing. and the more i see the more here in the media, the more i get people writing to me on facebook or, and other social media channels. i really see how much work there still to be done

. germany has had 11 men and space 11 and are single woman. and if you compare that to any other country, every other country this sent more than 2 astronauts into space has had at least one woman. and germany has this huge number of astronauts in the international standard. i mean after the u. s. and russia, of course, have many more channels. germany is, i think with japan, the country that has, that is number 3 and having most astronauts and has never had a woman. and that just, i think it's quite representative of society actually. because on paper, yet germany, of course we have a quality. if you look in the minds of people in society, it's still very, very different. i mean, as soon as they're a kids, it's often the woman that stops working. if you look at the gender pay gap, it's really bad in germany. it's. i have a 20 percent. and just the stereotypes, the still prevailing in society are incredible. i mean these,

these kids will often write to me. that's one of the things i enjoy actually. i mean, we're setting out to be role models for young girls for young women that want to get into the sciences into technology. and the number of times i have goes, you know, of not older than 789, coming up to me and saying, oh yeah, you know, i think it's already cool and like spice. everyone's telling me, oh, it's not really for me. and the boys are making fun of me because it's and you know, it's not very female thing to do. it's more of a boys thing to do. and i'm like, oh my god, i mean i had this when i was growing up fine. but i thought the world would have moved on since then, very, not or least not in germany. and that's really our mission is to create a role model to change this mindset to just show in society that women are everywhere, even in technological fields. and women can even become astronauts, i'm not saying the astronauts are more important than lots of the other engineers, a mathematician scientist and so on. it's just a, they're very much in the public. i was, i'm seeing right now,

right. i'm very much in the public eye and i think we need people. we need women to be in the public eye to show to young women and dallas, that women are everywhere. women can do everything they can even become astronauts . but it's a tough fight for susanna, and he asked one out and they can't complete their mission without political and financial aid getting to so does a lot. oftentimes it, since icon is mine has really hot from my hope of going into space myself one day by my personal goal is simply to prove to germany and its men, that women and especially girls in germany can do it. there are role model, the 5 more love, the moon landing was such an inspiring environment for me. i was full and it is shaped my whole lot. even bishop, my syllabus, i only saw issues in the moment it withou astronaut. with our whole focus,

i want to create such inspiring moments for girls in germany on much was august off, as long as they resist us will keep pushing with ah, i want to leave this earth having experience as much as nurse to experience. i think i'm going space is kind of the pinnacle of that because you know there's, i think there's just so many new things are when you're in space that is really such a new experience. the so exclusive to that is really the b or an endo of the stream . mm. to ensure that this dream has a chance of becoming reality. susanna trains for the final frontier at every opportunity. i mean, i've seen

a lot of videos obviously of more of the journey his life. so i think i have a pretty clear understanding of what is involved. even of course, never anticipates how are you going to be feeling at the mental state of mind. the 1st thing that that happens when you are fence where your definition of space starts. exactly. but in weightlessness, you just float around and experience the weight business. and then of course, i mean, i think actually during the 1st portion of your trip to space, you have very low time to just experience and let the sensations add to their magic because you're so focused on all your checklists and on everything going correctly . but i think once on the, i assess the 1st thing i would do a half the time is to look out the window and see the us. i think that'll be the most magical moment. those i know has to clear many hurdles before going into space. the us till now tim

still has to raise 50000000 euros for a spot on a space next flight. susanna has to complete her training and be selected as an astronaut. it's a long uphill battle, but she is ready to go the distance for her dream of flying into space and seeing the earth from above. ah, ah, i've decided to enjoy what i can in the moment. so that's really why i'm trying to live that every day. so i'm not thinking ok, i'm doing this training because i one day once again space i'm trying to think more . okay. you know, i'm doing my pilot's license and i, she really enjoy it. and with our space or not, is still a great experience. it's a great opportunity. i'm learning something i'm enjoying it. and of course it will

be the icing on the cake to then also go into space. but if that doesn't happen, it's not waste of time. so i think, yeah, my way of dealing with this is taking it one day at a time trying to enjoy the journey broth and just focusing on the destination. hm. it was honest, path to space is unconventional, which could be a drawback. but she's a fighter. the voyage itself is difficult, but the path to reach it is no easier. still, her positive winning attitude helps her keep trying, pushing through and moving forward. ah, though no knows that she or her colleague will be chosen to fly to the stars.

susanna is always striving to do her best. ah, ah ah ah ah, ah, i hate to be the 1st german woman in space. first of all, just for me personally,

i'm completely selfishly. it's just a dream i've always had. i've always wanted to see the earth from above. i always want to see our earth as a planet is probably the most beautiful planets of all and to experience weightlessness to just, you know, go to the final frontier, the space. but also beyond that. and that's the reason i really like yes and projects. i really like the idea of being this role model and getting to the next generation a little bit of just being maybe figure that can inspire our women and by the next generation to do whatever they want to do to go into science to go into technology or maybe in broader terms just to follow whatever dreams they have. so that's something i already i had for ah, [000:00:00;00]

ah, susanna. honda is an astronaut in search of a rocket ship, a galactic pioneer with the courage and strength to take on the world. and the universe and despite the yachts, nevertheless, she persists in being a role model for girls and women. and in showing that even gravity cannot hold her down with

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