66th Issue: The Mercury 13

I have been watching this show called For All Mankind. Well, I’ve only watched six episodes so far but it’s pretty good. It’s about an alternate history where women and people of color join the NASA program to become astronauts because the Soviet Union gets a man on the moon before the United States does. It’s a slow start but gets interesting. I’m always here for alternate history that isn’t about the Civil War or World War II.

As with any historical show I ended up googling a lot to see what was real and what was made up, and that is how I found out about the Mercury 13. The Mercury 13 was a privately funded program in the 1960s to train women under the same screening tests that men had to become astronauts. However, they were not allowed to join NASA and never got to go to space. They lobbied Congress and the White House to be allowed to go space, and were featured in LIFE magazine.

 

 

William Randolph Lovelace who was the chairman of the NASA Special Advisory Committee on Life Science developed the tests that the astronauts had to go through and wanted to know how women would do on those tests. They invited Jerrie Cobb, who was known for being a famous, accomplished female pilot. Dr. Lovelace funded the female physical testing program on his own, privately, and invited 25 women to participate. The program was kept mostly under wraps. Jerrie Cobb passed all three phases of testing. Nineteen women were recruited, and thirteen passed the first phase. They were all accomplished pilots.

The types of tests the women underwent were not pleasant. They had normal xrays and physicals but also swallowed rubber tubes to test their stomach acids, were electrocuted to test their ulnar nerve, got ice water shot into their ears to see how quickly they recovered, and rode stationary bicycles unilt they were exhausted ot test their respiration, among many other unpleasant tests.

The thirteen women were Myrtle Cagle, Jerrie Cobb, twins Janet and Marion Dietrich, Wally Funk, Sarah Gorelick, Janey Briggs Hart, Jean Hixson, Rhea Wolfman, Gene Nora Stumbough, Irene Leverton, Jerri Sloan and Bernice Steadman. The women ranged in age from 23 to 41 years old.

Three of the women – Jerrie Cobb, Rhea Wolfman, and Wally Funk -  also took Phase II tests, which were psychological tests and an isolation tank. Jerrie Cobb then also took Phase III testing, which were advanced aeromedical exams using military equipment and aircraft. Some of the other women were going to attend to also take the Phase III tests, but since it wasn’t sanctioned by NASA, the US Navy wouldn’t allow them to use their facilities and the program was abruptly disbanded.

Jerrie Cobb flew to Washington DC to try and get the program up and running again. She and other women in the program wrote letters to the President, and testified at public hearings to Congress. Sadly NASA representatives and astronauts including John Glenn said that women just couldn’t be astronauts (for sexist reasons). For example, NASA required astronauts to be graduates of military jet test piloting programs and have engineering degrees, though John Glenn himself did not have that degree. Women were barred from the Air Force training schools, so they couldn’t join the test pilot programs to make them eligible for astronaut training.

In 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space. When she met Jerrie Cobb, she said she was her role model, and said that she always thought that Jerrie would be the first, not her. It was not until 1983 that Sally Ride was the first woman in space. 

If you watch For All Mankind, let me know what you think.