For readers ofThe Astronaut Wives Club, The Mercury 13reveals the little-known true story of the remarkable women whotrained for NASAspace flight.
In 1961, just as NASA launched its first man into space, a group of women underwent secret testing in the hopes of becoming America s first female astronauts. They passed the same battery of tests at the legendary Lovelace Foundation as did the Mercury 7 astronauts, but they were summarily dismissed by the boys club at NASA and on Capitol Hill. The USSR sent its first woman into space in 1963; the United States did not follow suit...