University of Wisconsin to honor 13 US would-be women astronauts
More than 40 years ago, 13 young American women came close to venturing into space, but their dreams were dashed just days before they were to have started spaceflight simulation tests.
Now, officials of the University of Wisconsin, at Oshkosh, hope they can soothe the women's burning what-ifs by awarding each an honorary doctorate at graduation ceremonies on Saturday.
"Isn't that neat?" said Jerri Truhill, one of the thwarted pioneers. "We're not used to that. We're just used to rejection."
The 13, who trained in secret in the early 1960s, were told NASA was not interested in their training, just days before the group was to leave for spaceflight simulation tests in Pensacola, Florida.
Simply by being pilots, the women bucked a culture that expected women to cook, change diapers and look pretty. The 13 pushed it further, enduring - and passing - the same tests as the better-known "Mercury 7" men, suffering through sensory deprivation and tests gauging how long they could keep body parts submerged in near-freezing water.
The 13 female pilots were initially part of the United States' effort to catch up to the Soviet space program, which launched the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into space in April 1961. But NASA pulled the plug in the 11th hour.
"I wanted it so bad I could taste it, practically," said Beatrice "B" Steadman, 80, one of the 13. "I think we all wanted to punch somebody."
In 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. The first American woman to enter space, Sally Ride, did not launch until 1983.
Nicole Cloutier, a NASA spokeswoman in Houston, said she could find no one to comment because no one from that era still works at NASA. She did offer that NASA now has 25 female astronauts.
George Low, director of space missions in the 1960s, explained at the time that the women lacked military test pilot experience (they could not be test pilots back then); that letting women use the training equipment would cut down on the men's time; and that more than enough men were waiting for astronaut slots.
Author Martha Ackmann writes in her book "The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight" that NASA decided sending a woman into space was not a priority. // Pravda.Ru
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