NASA mulls all-female shuttle crew CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Come 2001, women may have an inside track in the macho world of space. Within the next two years, NASA may be flying all-female space shuttle crews - for science. With a new space station on the horizon and increasing talk of trips to Mars, NASA wants to make sure it protects the health of all its astronauts, male and female. But just as with Earth-bound medical research, most of what it knows has been gleaned from men, and projecting results onto women could be dangerous. Weightlessness, for instance, is known to cause bone loss in both sexes, and because women are at greater risk of osteoporosis, theory might suggest women in space load up on calcium. But that could create kidney stones, points out Dr. Arnauld Nicogossian, the space agency's top doctor. Other areas of concern, for both sexes, include radiation and the weakening of the immune system in weightlessness. See ful! l story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559112632-929>
