I've used more than 100 in one cycle. Granted, I had a condition that caused extremely heavy bleeding - but declaring an exceptionally heavy flow as requiring only 28 tampons is equally ignorant of the variety among women's periods. And - in space, where I can't just run out to the corner store . . .

I take your point, and I sympathize.

I would not have been physically fit enough to be an astronaut.

But even before I developed submucosal fibroids, my flow was heavy enough that I went through a box of 40 every month.

imagine women changing their tampons that often in their space suits?? That comes down to a change almost every 1.5 hours!

A better solution would be adult diapers for the longer times women needed to be suited up.

But as for 1.5 hours being outrageous - I would (almost) have killed for the luxury of being able to last 1.5 hours between changes. The reason I know adult diapers work is that I had to wear them overnight to avoid waking up several times in the middle of the night every night of my period terrified I had just ruined the mattress.

I was losing a quart of blood in 7 days (most of it in the first 5). I was so anemic that they were evaluating me for bone cancer (despite the fact that two gynecologists had also examined me and I had told them how heavy my flow was), and the massive blood loss was starting to damage my heart. But, according to all 4 (male) doctors , I was just a silly, over-exaggerating woman and the two conditions (anemia and a slightly heavier flow than normal) were unrelated. (Until I figured out a way to measure - and prove - the loss)

(But even before the condition - 2 hours was a normal maximum duration for me. And toxic shock syndrome is only a significant risk if you are using tampons that are too absorbent for the flow you have.)

The men, who presumably have wives or girlfriends (sometimes both) knew as much (or little) about menstruation as any man and had some basis to ask. And, at least they did ask, and included an error factor for any that might, say, accidentally float out into space. Or be used for possible other reasons, as I have seen with tampons and pads. Highly absorbent materials are always handy to have around.

The story about the good doctor preparing "space secretaries" is somewhat objectionable, but what would be more objectionable is that it took us 10 years after the Russians to send our woman into space.

And the makeup kit was asked for.