I hadn’t heard of the Mercury 13 before.
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Many people don’t know the Mercury 13.
But for science those women were very interesting, they proved that women can be astronauts.
I was one of them.
Wheels
I didn’t know, either.
Thanks for posting this. A few books on this topic seem to be out there, I’ll have to look them over.
No kidding! Think of all the interesting lives that slipped past us because of the–shall we say, filter–that determined for us that these stories weren’t worth our time. That’s changing.
Similarly, last year the New York Times tried to compensate for some of its historic male and white bias in place when editors chose who to obit each day. For several days after, they published a host of hidden, meaningful people from the past like this one.
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Before the first Gemini flight the Russians had sent Valentina Tereshkova in to space. The world’s first civilian as well apparently, as they picked her for the ability to skydive rather than being a pilot, and was drafted into the Russian airforce only as part of the space program. Fascinating times.
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“They worked so hard, and they wanted it so badly, and then we came along and caught the wave at just the right time when society was changing,” said Fisher, who flew on the space shuttle just once, in 1984. “I felt so grateful to them and sad, in a way, that they weren’t able to achieve their dream. But they did, in a way, by opening the door for us.”
I wonder how the Mercury 13 felt when they saw women going to space - pride, kinship, vindication, or bitterness?
Thanks for posting that - a fascinating read
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I suspect they felt to a degree all those feelings.
Wheels
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