Had NASA believed in merit
October 20, 2014 9:33 AM Subscribe
“I would give my life to fly in space. It’s hard for me to talk about it but I would. I would then, and I will now.” The terrible injustice of Jerrie Cobb, who deserved to be the first female astronaut, yet never made it to space at all.
Thirteen American women — today known as the Mercury 13 — were selected to participate in the three phases of testing. Jerrie Cobb was the only one who passed them all. Not only did she pass, her scores placed her in the top 2% of all candidates...
Important note: Both Cobb and many of the other Mercury 13 women scored higher than any man on a number of NASA tests. It's an infuriating and inspiring story at the same time; the women were so talented, and so ready, and sexism kept them from participating. There's a fantastic book, Martha Ackman's The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight, that covers the story of Cobb and the other women in fascinating detail. It's a great read, essential for anyone interested in space history.
posted by mediareport at 10:11 AM on October 20, 2014 [16 favorites]
Important note: Both Cobb and many of the other Mercury 13 women scored higher than any man on a number of NASA tests. It's an infuriating and inspiring story at the same time; the women were so talented, and so ready, and sexism kept them from participating. There's a fantastic book, Martha Ackman's The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight, that covers the story of Cobb and the other women in fascinating detail. It's a great read, essential for anyone interested in space history.
posted by mediareport at 10:11 AM on October 20, 2014 [16 favorites]
I blame Lyndon Johnson. The question of the Mercury 13 got all the way to Congressional hearings, but Johnson insisted on making the question "go away". So wrong.
posted by suelac at 10:15 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by suelac at 10:15 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
NASA has done so many shitty things in its time.
True. But a few years ago there was a Tom Hanks-produced miniseries on the history of the space program, and it was at least encouraging to see the faces in the control room change over time. By the late 60s there was a black guy in the room, IIRC, and then a lot more women in the room in the 70s and 80s.
They were forced to, and they dragged their feet, but it did happen eventually.
posted by suelac at 10:17 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
True. But a few years ago there was a Tom Hanks-produced miniseries on the history of the space program, and it was at least encouraging to see the faces in the control room change over time. By the late 60s there was a black guy in the room, IIRC, and then a lot more women in the room in the 70s and 80s.
They were forced to, and they dragged their feet, but it did happen eventually.
posted by suelac at 10:17 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
Y'all might be interested in Ian Sales' short, chapbook alternate history novel Then Will The Great Ocean Wash Deep Above:
It is April 1962. The Korean War has escalated and the US is struggling to keep the Russians and Chinese north of the 38th parallel. All the men are away fighting, but that doesn’t mean the Space Race is lost. NASA decides to look elsewhere for its astronauts: the thirteen women pilots who passed the same tests as the original male candidates. These are the Mercury 13: Jerrie Cobb, Janey Hart, Myrtle Cagle, Jerri Sloan, Jan Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Bernice Steadman, Wally Funk, Sarah Gorelick, Gene Nora Stumbough, Jean Hixson, Rhea Hurrle and Irene Leverton. One of these women will be the first American in space. Another will be the first American to spacewalk. Perhaps one will even be the first human being to walk on the Moon.posted by MartinWisse at 10:17 AM on October 20, 2014 [4 favorites]
Related: An All-Female Mission to Mars
As a NASA guinea pig, I verified that women would be cheaper to launch than men.
Week in and week out, the three female crew members expended less than half the calories of the three male crew members. Less than half! We were all exercising roughly the same amount—at least 45 minutes a day for five consecutive days a week—but our metabolic furnaces were calibrated in radically different ways.
During one week, the most metabolically active male burned an average of 3,450 calories per day, while the least metabolically active female expended 1,475 calories per day. It was rare for a woman on crew to burn 2,000 calories in a day and common for male crew members to exceed 3,000...
"Small women haven’t been demonstrated to be appreciably dumber than big women or big men, so there’s no reason to choose larger people for a flight crew when it’s brain power you want,” says Drysdale. “The logical thing to do is to fly small women.”
Harry Jones, of NASA Ames Research Center, says that he too noticed the average female and male calorie requirement differed significantly and published on the topic in the early 2000s. “For a Mars mission, life support will be a major cost,” he says. “It is expected that oxygen and water can be recycled, but not food. Reducing the crew’s calorie requirement would cut cost.”
...Soyeon Yi, who is 5-foot-4, said she didn’t feel as cramped in the space station as the cosmonauts who were more than 6 feet tall. They were envious of her freedom of movement, she said. But she also stressed that she’d rather be in a diverse group than one that’s too similar.
posted by mediareport at 10:26 AM on October 20, 2014 [6 favorites]
As a NASA guinea pig, I verified that women would be cheaper to launch than men.
Week in and week out, the three female crew members expended less than half the calories of the three male crew members. Less than half! We were all exercising roughly the same amount—at least 45 minutes a day for five consecutive days a week—but our metabolic furnaces were calibrated in radically different ways.
During one week, the most metabolically active male burned an average of 3,450 calories per day, while the least metabolically active female expended 1,475 calories per day. It was rare for a woman on crew to burn 2,000 calories in a day and common for male crew members to exceed 3,000...
"Small women haven’t been demonstrated to be appreciably dumber than big women or big men, so there’s no reason to choose larger people for a flight crew when it’s brain power you want,” says Drysdale. “The logical thing to do is to fly small women.”
Harry Jones, of NASA Ames Research Center, says that he too noticed the average female and male calorie requirement differed significantly and published on the topic in the early 2000s. “For a Mars mission, life support will be a major cost,” he says. “It is expected that oxygen and water can be recycled, but not food. Reducing the crew’s calorie requirement would cut cost.”
...Soyeon Yi, who is 5-foot-4, said she didn’t feel as cramped in the space station as the cosmonauts who were more than 6 feet tall. They were envious of her freedom of movement, she said. But she also stressed that she’d rather be in a diverse group than one that’s too similar.
posted by mediareport at 10:26 AM on October 20, 2014 [6 favorites]
PBS just last week aired a Makers episdoe about this!
posted by LizBoBiz at 10:28 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by LizBoBiz at 10:28 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
By the late 60s there was a black guy in the room, IIRC, and then a lot more women in the room in the 70s and 80s.
And now the director is a black guy, and his deputy is a woman.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:38 AM on October 20, 2014
And now the director is a black guy, and his deputy is a woman.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:38 AM on October 20, 2014
If NASA won't send her why not push for one of the private companies like SpaceX to take her up for a ride? It would be great PR.
Of course it might also piss off NASA. So there's that.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:50 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
Of course it might also piss off NASA. So there's that.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:50 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
I have a feeling that life is a spiritual adventure, and I want to make mine in the sky… it’s what I was born to do, my life won’t be complete until I fly in space.
Is there a Kickstarter for this?
posted by crepesofwrath at 10:54 AM on October 20, 2014 [6 favorites]
Is there a Kickstarter for this?
posted by crepesofwrath at 10:54 AM on October 20, 2014 [6 favorites]
If NASA won't send her why not push for one of the private companies like SpaceX to take her up for a ride?
SpaceX isn't planning on sending their first crewed vehicle into space until mid-2015 at the earliest. Her only option in the near-term is launching on a foreign platform.
posted by muddgirl at 11:07 AM on October 20, 2014
SpaceX isn't planning on sending their first crewed vehicle into space until mid-2015 at the earliest. Her only option in the near-term is launching on a foreign platform.
posted by muddgirl at 11:07 AM on October 20, 2014
I dunno, requiring all early astronauts to have test pilot and jet experience makes sense to me. The real problem is women weren't allowed to have that kind of flight experience. The legacy of sexism starts early and lasts forever.
posted by Nelson at 11:10 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 11:10 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
I dunno, requiring all early astronauts to have test pilot and jet experience makes sense to me.
Why?
posted by muddgirl at 11:13 AM on October 20, 2014
Why?
posted by muddgirl at 11:13 AM on October 20, 2014
Because early space flying was more like flying test jet aircraft than anything else? I think it's terrible women weren't given an equal opportunity from the beginning and I'm sure most of the boys running NASA never even stopped to consider the selection criteria were exclusionary or if they did, didn't care. But being a test pilot is a pretty unique set of skills and experiences.
Astronomy Cast had a recent podcast about the Mercury 7 that gives a bit more flavor of what trying to be one of the first astronauts was like.
posted by Nelson at 11:23 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
Astronomy Cast had a recent podcast about the Mercury 7 that gives a bit more flavor of what trying to be one of the first astronauts was like.
posted by Nelson at 11:23 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
Marion Dietrich
You can probably guess who I thought that was at first glance.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:24 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
You can probably guess who I thought that was at first glance.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:24 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
I dunno, requiring all early astronauts to have test pilot and jet experience makes sense to me.
Why?
In order to make sure they had The Right Stuff.
posted by sideshow at 11:25 AM on October 20, 2014
Why?
In order to make sure they had The Right Stuff.
posted by sideshow at 11:25 AM on October 20, 2014
Let's say you have a job for someone who's not only comfortable in a cockpit wearing a breathing mask and making decisions based on instrumentation and one-off hand-labeled prototypical control systems that nobody's had time to make intuitive, but can stay focused and attentive while all kinds of crazy things are happening to them in terms of G-forces and orientation. Who else are you going to use but a jet test pilot? It's the exact job description.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:37 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:37 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
Nelson, you should check out the book I mentioned; it goes into detail about why the female pilots who passed NASA's early astronaut tests also had more than enough experience on a wide range of airplanes to handle anything NASA would have thrown at them.
posted by mediareport at 11:43 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mediareport at 11:43 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
Because early space flying was more like flying test jet aircraft than anything else?
The test jet aircraft pilots had to receive extensive retraining in the Mercury capsule specifically, and piloting and manouvering space craft in general. I don't see why prop aircraft pilots couldn't receive the same training.
Yes, it is a crime that women were not allowed to be test pilots or jet pilots. But once that discrimination occurs, we can't throw our hands up at future discrimination and say, Well, it's too late now! We'll have to continue to bar them from all future activities until such time as the earlier injustices are corrected! I think an effort absolutely should have been made to allow these women to train as astronauts. It would have been the best thing for America and for the space program.
posted by muddgirl at 11:44 AM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]
The test jet aircraft pilots had to receive extensive retraining in the Mercury capsule specifically, and piloting and manouvering space craft in general. I don't see why prop aircraft pilots couldn't receive the same training.
Yes, it is a crime that women were not allowed to be test pilots or jet pilots. But once that discrimination occurs, we can't throw our hands up at future discrimination and say, Well, it's too late now! We'll have to continue to bar them from all future activities until such time as the earlier injustices are corrected! I think an effort absolutely should have been made to allow these women to train as astronauts. It would have been the best thing for America and for the space program.
posted by muddgirl at 11:44 AM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]
If NASA won't send her why not push for one of the private companies like SpaceX to take her up for a ride? It would be great PR.
Of course it might also piss off NASA. So there's that.
This implies NASA possesses any domestic capability to launch anyone of either gender. At the moment, this is not true.
posted by Doc Ezra at 12:49 PM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]
Of course it might also piss off NASA. So there's that.
This implies NASA possesses any domestic capability to launch anyone of either gender. At the moment, this is not true.
posted by Doc Ezra at 12:49 PM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]
but can stay focused and attentive while all kinds of crazy things are happening to them in terms of G-forces and orientation. Who else are you going to use but a jet test pilot?
Some of the tests women like Cobb performed better on than some of the male jet test pilots were, in fact, G-force tests.
posted by mediareport at 1:32 PM on October 20, 2014
Some of the tests women like Cobb performed better on than some of the male jet test pilots were, in fact, G-force tests.
posted by mediareport at 1:32 PM on October 20, 2014
The problem, of course, is that the years of being a fighter test pilot provided men with very important skills that they could bring to the fore when necessary. So much of that is muscle memory. And yes, the women could have been trained to be fighter pilots, but then it becomes a practical question: do we put off the Mercury program for the 10-15 years it would take to train these women to be fighter pilots, and get them the hours of flight experience (over 1500 hours of flying time were required! The women in the test had 1000 hours.) necessary? Or do we take lesser performing pilots and launch in the near term?
I mean, at the time, it was a no-brainer.
posted by gsh at 1:41 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
I mean, at the time, it was a no-brainer.
posted by gsh at 1:41 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
I don't think that was their reasoning at the time. They had more of a problem with women being in the space program in general, as evidenced by the fact that the solution was not to allow women into the airforce to be able to become jet fighters, but to cancel the Mercury 13 all together.
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:49 PM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:49 PM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
The problem, of course, is that the years of being a fighter test pilot provided men with very important skills that they could bring to the fore when necessary
Except the cockpit of a capsule bears very little resemblance to the cockpit of an F-15 (or whatever).
As noted above, The test jet aircraft pilots had to receive extensive retraining in the Mercury capsule specifically, and piloting and manouvering space craft in general.
So the skillset of the male pilots wasn't necessarily more applicable than the skillset of the female pilots.
over 1500 hours of flying time were required! The women in the test had 1000 hours
As a minimum. As in, they had to have more than that, and many did, and in fact they had experience flying many more planes than the men did, because most of them had been ferrying military planes during the war, often in dangerous conditions with unfamiliar controls.
There were, in fact, few objective reasons why women weren't admitted to test for the space program. The subjective reason was that they were women, and space was For Men. The very idea was so shocking to (male) decision-makers that they didn't even bother analyzing or articulating an objective decision: they instead laughed them off.
posted by suelac at 1:59 PM on October 20, 2014 [7 favorites]
Except the cockpit of a capsule bears very little resemblance to the cockpit of an F-15 (or whatever).
As noted above, The test jet aircraft pilots had to receive extensive retraining in the Mercury capsule specifically, and piloting and manouvering space craft in general.
So the skillset of the male pilots wasn't necessarily more applicable than the skillset of the female pilots.
over 1500 hours of flying time were required! The women in the test had 1000 hours
As a minimum. As in, they had to have more than that, and many did, and in fact they had experience flying many more planes than the men did, because most of them had been ferrying military planes during the war, often in dangerous conditions with unfamiliar controls.
There were, in fact, few objective reasons why women weren't admitted to test for the space program. The subjective reason was that they were women, and space was For Men. The very idea was so shocking to (male) decision-makers that they didn't even bother analyzing or articulating an objective decision: they instead laughed them off.
posted by suelac at 1:59 PM on October 20, 2014 [7 favorites]
I mean, at the time, it was a no-brainer.
Then why were so many folks, in NASA and out, convinced *at the time* that women were perfectly capable of being astronauts and deserved the shot at continued training?
If it was such a "no-brainer," then there wouldn't have been intelligent advocates for inclusion at the time it was happening. But, you know, there were.
posted by mediareport at 2:00 PM on October 20, 2014 [7 favorites]
Then why were so many folks, in NASA and out, convinced *at the time* that women were perfectly capable of being astronauts and deserved the shot at continued training?
If it was such a "no-brainer," then there wouldn't have been intelligent advocates for inclusion at the time it was happening. But, you know, there were.
posted by mediareport at 2:00 PM on October 20, 2014 [7 favorites]
I dunno, requiring all early astronauts to have test pilot and jet experience makes sense to me.
If you know anything about the early space program, it should be that there was a great tension between these in-control pilots and the NASA engineers. The former derided the latter's plans for early spaceflight as "spam in a can". Gordo Cooper did use his experience to recover from a problem on Gemini flight Faith 7, but for the most part, the missions were designed to be run as straightforward programs already in the capsule computers. Even the iconic capsule window was only added after lobbying by the astronauts.
Here's hoping someone will reserve a spot on Virgin Galactic in Cobb's name. (Alas, they are having proving problems and may be a long time yet getting their suborbital service started.)
posted by dhartung at 2:20 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
If you know anything about the early space program, it should be that there was a great tension between these in-control pilots and the NASA engineers. The former derided the latter's plans for early spaceflight as "spam in a can". Gordo Cooper did use his experience to recover from a problem on Gemini flight Faith 7, but for the most part, the missions were designed to be run as straightforward programs already in the capsule computers. Even the iconic capsule window was only added after lobbying by the astronauts.
Here's hoping someone will reserve a spot on Virgin Galactic in Cobb's name. (Alas, they are having proving problems and may be a long time yet getting their suborbital service started.)
posted by dhartung at 2:20 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
There's a great article called The Case for Female Astronauts: Reproducing Americans in the Final Frontier which points out that Americans in the 50s and 60s actually had no problem envisioning women in space--as long as those women were "pioneer mothers" and "reproductive cargo" to colonize new worlds.
When the Mercury 13 women hit the news, newspapers and pundits explicitly said "Yes, the future of space will have women in it, because we are going to colonize space and only women can make more Americans, and we can't get around this." Basically, we were exploring amazing new technological frontiers, but the idea that reproduction might take place in any configuration other than 1960s American-style was just not on the radar.
We think of women like Jerrie Cobb in "hero astronaut roles"--but when Congressmen responded positively to her and other members of the Mercury 13, they were seeing them as intrepid, civilizing frontierswomen, the kind that had followed their menfolk in covered wagons and raised hearty pioneer children.
{The article goes into a lot more fascinating stuff about our ideas of reproduction in space. Like, why do so many sci fi films have interstellar travel but STILL have dramatic birth scenes? And aside from female astronauts, why is so much "women in space" research done on "but what does space travel do to the rat reproductive system"?}
Ironically, Jacqueline Cochran, who founded the WASPS and had paid for the Mercury 13 medical tests, testified that women were physically, intellectually, and psychologically equipped for space flight, but their social dedication to being wives and mothers made them a poor investment on NASA's part.
posted by Hypatia at 3:18 PM on October 20, 2014 [5 favorites]
When the Mercury 13 women hit the news, newspapers and pundits explicitly said "Yes, the future of space will have women in it, because we are going to colonize space and only women can make more Americans, and we can't get around this." Basically, we were exploring amazing new technological frontiers, but the idea that reproduction might take place in any configuration other than 1960s American-style was just not on the radar.
We think of women like Jerrie Cobb in "hero astronaut roles"--but when Congressmen responded positively to her and other members of the Mercury 13, they were seeing them as intrepid, civilizing frontierswomen, the kind that had followed their menfolk in covered wagons and raised hearty pioneer children.
{The article goes into a lot more fascinating stuff about our ideas of reproduction in space. Like, why do so many sci fi films have interstellar travel but STILL have dramatic birth scenes? And aside from female astronauts, why is so much "women in space" research done on "but what does space travel do to the rat reproductive system"?}
Ironically, Jacqueline Cochran, who founded the WASPS and had paid for the Mercury 13 medical tests, testified that women were physically, intellectually, and psychologically equipped for space flight, but their social dedication to being wives and mothers made them a poor investment on NASA's part.
posted by Hypatia at 3:18 PM on October 20, 2014 [5 favorites]
Yeah, Cochran's testimony had other problematic elements as well. It's probably worth noting she was often in an adversarial relationship with Cobb in regard to the leadership and publicity of the Mercury 13.
posted by mediareport at 4:24 PM on October 20, 2014
posted by mediareport at 4:24 PM on October 20, 2014
Much of the math for the early space program was done by Katherine Johnson, who must surely be a Mentat.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:13 PM on October 20, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:13 PM on October 20, 2014 [5 favorites]
« Older Streaming Music Has Left Me Adrift | With a Little Help From My Fwends Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by bleep at 10:08 AM on October 20, 2014