Mercury 13 (2018)

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[woman]
Most harmful behavior is based in fear.

2
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Protecting one’s perceived position
in society…

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protecting one’s territory,
or one’s physical well-being.

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But progress is inevitable.

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[man on radio] This is Apollo Control.
The situation is go for landing.

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Repeat again, we are go for landing.

7
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[woman #2] There was, at that time,
a lot of prejudice.

8
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Women astronauts. What a ridiculous idea.

9
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[woman on radio] Roger.
You’re five by, Jim. We’re sailing free.

10
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Okay, Jim. How do you read? Over.

11
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[Jim] I read you loud and clear.
You sound beautiful.

12
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[woman #3]
I think we all know why it didn’t happen.

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[woman on radio] Okay. 300 feet.

14
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Fifteen down.

15
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Take over, Sarah.

16
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[woman #4] It was a good old boy network.

17
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And there was no such thing
as a “good old girl” network.

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[woman on radio]
Okay. Fuel is at ten percent.

19
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[woman #5] I guess we did it so well,
they didn’t like that. [chuckles] So…

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[woman on radio] Here comes the shadow.

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Perfect place over here. I see
a couple of big boulders, not too bad.

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[woman #6] I still didn’t tell people
that I wanted to be an astronaut.

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I was just gonna do it.

24
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[woman on radio]
You’re leveled off. Let her on down.

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Okay. Seven, six percent. Pretty fast.

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Contact. Stop!

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[scattered applause]

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[woman #7] Someone has to start the fight
to change the opinion.

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Someone has to lead the way.

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[woman on radio]
That’s one small leap for a woman…

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another giant step for mankind.

32
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Surprise!

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[both laughing]

34
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- How we doing?
- Great.

35
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Good to see you.

36
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- Hi, honey. How are you?
- Good.

37
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- Good to see you, sweetheart.
- Thank you. Nice to see you.

38
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- What kind of airplane do you usually fly?
- Usually a 172.

39
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Although the last time,
I was flying in a Cherokee.

40
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So it doesn’t really matter. I’m used to a
Piper from the days of my three Comanches.

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- You’re the Comanche girl. I remember.
- Yeah. Low-wing Comanches.

42
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I’ve been very lucky, and I’ve been able
to fly some Stearmans about once a month.

43
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- Oh, good.
- That’s great.

44
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That’s the airplane that I owned
when I was 20 years old out in California.

45
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I was a very, very curious kid.

46
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My first ride in an airplane
was at nine years of age.

47
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And it was wonderful.
The freedom, the smell of the exhaust,

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the air going over my hair.

49
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It was me. It was part of me.

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I had those wings on too.

51
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[woman] I grew up in Minnesota.

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Every day, I’d see this airplane
flying overhead,

53
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and I thought, “I could do that too.”

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My parents didn’t like that idea.

55
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People didn’t think
it was for women at all, flying.

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But I knew better,
and I liked it and I did it.

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[woman] I think your first solo is,

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in all your flying experiences,
you feel is your greatest accomplishment.

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It was the thrill of going up
and being free up there.

60
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And you’d look down
and you could get a proper perspective.

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I always was very positive

62
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about always willing to learn
something new and have a new adventure.

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[man]
There was a barnstormer coming into Flint,

64
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and they were advertising rides.

65
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B said that, from the moment she got in
that plane and took off and looked down,

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she said, “This is it.
This is what I’m meant for.”

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[man]
This is Janey’s official wedding picture.

68
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My mother was a very well-off child

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who took advantage of that
to pursue the dreams that she always held.

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Seventeen. You’re right.

71
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My first experience of flight, um,
was when I was very young.

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Mother was the pilot.

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And off we go, into the sky.

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And Mother’s very delighted
to just show her little girl

75
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this is what you could do.

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So we’re going higher
and higher and higher

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and closer and closer to the clouds.

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I’m becoming a bit alarmed

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because, in my mind,
these clouds are solid

80
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and we’re going to crash into them,
and my mother is going to kill us.

81
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As we get closer and closer, I said,

82
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“Why are we going so close to the clouds?
We’re gonna hit them.”

83
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And she just... She truly laughed
and said, you know, “Watch this.”

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And away we went,
through and over the clouds.

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Quite wonderful.

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[woman] I still, as I lift off,

87
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very often think, “Why me, God?"

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[radio chatter]

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"Why did I get to do this?”

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I don’t think I needed
a lot of encouragement.

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I was raring to go.
I just, I really loved flying.

92
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There was always
a certain amount of prejudice

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about women getting into the men’s fields.

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But there were stories of women
making breakthroughs in aviation.

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So I knew it was possible.

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[fanfare]

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[woman] She’s out to break the women’s
speed record: Jacqueline Cochran.

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Takeoff at Detroit for the girl
who now ranks as first lady of the sky.

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Women are progressing rapidly.

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The women’s record,
made by a ladybird of France,

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was 276 miles an hour.

102
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Jacqueline flies
17 miles an hour faster than that.

103
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She lands, and I wonder how she looks

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after flying more than 293 miles an hour.

105
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That’s fast enough
to disarrange one’s hair.

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Sure enough…

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No, I never met Jackie Cochran.
But I can tell you a Jackie Cochran story.

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I was flying into Cincinnati,

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and the tower gave me
landing instructions.

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And then I heard a woman’s voice.

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She was flying a Lockheed Lodestar.

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And I thought, “My word, what female pilot
flies that big old Lockheed?”

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The tower called her, and they said,

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“Lockheed,
you are lined up on the wrong runway.”

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And she said,

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“I’ll land
on any goddamn runway I please.”

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And of course I thought,

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“Wow, I didn’t know
you could say that on the radio.”

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[man] We didn’t really need a reason to
invite Jacqueline Cochran to the program.

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Our guest is probably
the most distinguished woman pilot

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in the world today.

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It seems that you soloed
at Roosevelt Field back in 1932.

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- [Cochran] That is correct. And...
- [man] Came in for a dead-stick landing.

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[Cochran] Right. And it was 48 hours after
I’d seen my first airplane on the ground.

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[man] How many hours of instruction
had you had when you...

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[Cochran] Five hours and five minutes.

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[man] But you’ve also done very well
in the cosmetics business.

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[Cochran] I did very well.

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[man] ’Course it helped to be married
to a millionaire, you admit that?

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[Cochran] I was doing pretty well
before I got married.

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Jacqueline Cochran was
an extraordinary gal.

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She, uh...
She was raised in poverty in the South.

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She had formed her own company.

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She met Floyd Odlum, who was,

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prior to the war, he was
the highest-paid CEO in the United States.

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[Ratley]
Jackie was very much of an individualist.

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First woman to do this,
first woman to do that.

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And Jackie wanted to be a trailblazer.

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- [fanfare]
- [man] Women with wings.

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At Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas,

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famous flyer Jacqueline Cochran
gives her ferry pilot students

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a last-minute inspection.

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Then it’s off by plane
for graduation ceremonies.

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“Good-bye, Daughter.
I’m working for the army now.”

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[Jessen] Jackie Cochran headed up
the WASP program during World War II,

146
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the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots,
who flew all the airplanes.

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That was the first time that happened.

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They flew all the military airplanes,
but they didn’t go to war.

149
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What they did is that
they provided ferrying capability.

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They would pick up the aircraft
from the factories

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and fly them to a point
where they would be turned over.

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And these women flew these planes

153
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with the same training, or less,
that the men had,

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and they had the same safety record.

155
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So they proved
they could fly those aircraft.

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[man] Nobody should ever tell a WASP
that flying’s not a woman’s job.

157
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They wouldn’t believe it
any more than if it were said

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a girl can’t be a good flyer and a woman,
a woman at the same time.

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After the war,
they didn’t want to give that up.

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They wouldn’t give up their independence.

161
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A lot of ’em stayed in aviation.

162
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And a lot of ’em didn’t want
to go back to the kitchen.

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They wanted their freedom again.

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[no audible dialogue]

165
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And these WASPs really were great mentors.

166
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They organized these air races
called the Powder Puff Derby.

167
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The first one I flew in was ’52.

168
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You know, when you’re 18,
you don’t have fear,

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and you don’t think of it as being brave.

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You think of adventures and having fun.

171
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Because 18-year-olds think
nothing will ever happen to ’em.

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You know, “Powder Puff Derby”
has a great ring to it.

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And it was always great to say,
“Yeah, I flew the Powder Puff Derby.”

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When you’re at the takeoff line
and the flag drops,

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you put the power to it, and you take off,

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and I stayed very close to the runway
to get my speed up.

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[Jessen] The women that you meet who are
flying in those air races are wonderful,

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and they’re very inspiring.

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And you make lifelong friends.

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What a thrill it is to have won this 13th
Annual All-Women International Air Race.

181
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Mary and I feel very proud of this.

182
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We’re real happy to be in Florida.
What a wonderful state you have.

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[Bob Steadman]
The air racing was very important.

184
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It proved the mettle. It proved that
these gals knew what they were doing.

185
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The racing fraternity was very strong.
The bond was very strong.

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[man] On October 4, 1957,

187
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a world-stirring event took place.

188
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Sputnik! My word.

189
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To see this thing going around the world.

190
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Space was very, very exciting then.
Everybody was into this space business.

191
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I do remember
Mother’s extraordinary enthusiasm

192
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when she knew that the Sputnik
was gonna be traversing in the sky.

193
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She got us all out of the house and
looking up at the sky, and just, I mean,

194
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she had grapefruit juice in her hand,
and she poured it all over herself.

195
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She was just so excited.

196
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How quickly it went
from just sending up Sputniks …

197
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and then sending up animals.

198
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I think everybody was astounded
at those accomplishments.

199
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[Bob Steadman]
I remember the Russians had,

200
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at that point in time,
had succeeded in every single endeavor.

201
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They were ahead of us.

202
00:16:08,342 --> 00:16:10,970
The United States needed to catch up.

203
00:16:19,937 --> 00:16:24,066
[man] One of these seven young men
will be the first American into space.

204
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These are the astronauts.

205
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United States Project Mercury.

206
00:16:35,202 --> 00:16:39,540
When this program started,
a lot of the military guys wanted in it.

207
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So they developed criteria
for qualification to be an astronaut.

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[man] Each must be:

209
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the graduate of a navy or air force
test pilot school,

210
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1,500 hours of flight time…

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qualified in jet aircraft,

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an engineering background,

213
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and 5’11” or less.

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Thirty-two candidates reported to the
Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico

215
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for an exhaustive series
of physical examinations.

216
00:17:12,364 --> 00:17:16,118
These tests were divided between those
given under normal clinical procedures

217
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and a series used for the first time
in Project Mercury.

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[Bob Steadman]
NASA had picked Dr. Lovelace

219
00:17:23,250 --> 00:17:27,421
to set the standards for the astronauts
in the program.

220
00:17:27,504 --> 00:17:31,258
So he had developed the testing,
and he had conducted the testing.

221
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[man] The question is,
is Dr. Lovelace’s work done?

222
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We hope to continue to participate
in the program.

223
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I might say that all our doctors
and technicians

224
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are a little tired right at the moment.

225
00:17:46,482 --> 00:17:51,028
My father was
Dr. William Randolph Lovelace II.

226
00:17:53,197 --> 00:17:57,826
He had a great smile,
but he could also be very serious.

227
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He was a surgeon first and foremost,

228
00:18:01,789 --> 00:18:07,795
but was always involved with aviation,
then aerospace medicine.

229
00:18:09,671 --> 00:18:14,802
He was invited to be
head of space medicine for NASA.

230
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That was a fun time

231
00:18:19,014 --> 00:18:23,102
because the seven astronauts came to
our house for dinner almost every night.

232
00:18:23,811 --> 00:18:27,981
And we were instructed
to make conversation with everyone.

233
00:18:28,065 --> 00:18:30,275
So we did, and ate with them,

234
00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:33,862
voted on them each night
in terms of who we liked the best,

235
00:18:33,946 --> 00:18:37,157
and would tell our father
in the morning at breakfast.

236
00:18:37,241 --> 00:18:39,451
It was always Scott Carpenter.

237
00:18:41,620 --> 00:18:43,247
It was just an amazing time.

238
00:18:43,330 --> 00:18:47,960
They’d make fun of my father
and the tests that he made them do, and…

239
00:18:49,211 --> 00:18:52,214
But there was obviously respect there.

240
00:18:52,297 --> 00:18:58,762
[John Glenn] I think the tests out of Dr.
Lovelace’s place in Albuquerque out there,

241
00:18:58,846 --> 00:19:02,808
uh, certainly some of the tests we had
out there were the most trying.

242
00:19:02,891 --> 00:19:04,810
And it’s rather difficult to pick one,

243
00:19:04,893 --> 00:19:08,480
because if you figure how many openings
there are on the human body

244
00:19:08,564 --> 00:19:10,732
and how far you can go in any one of ’em…

245
00:19:10,816 --> 00:19:12,693
[laughter]

246
00:19:14,319 --> 00:19:15,654
You gave it away.

247
00:19:17,906 --> 00:19:22,703
Now you answer which one would be
the toughest for you, and that’s it.

248
00:19:22,786 --> 00:19:24,997
[laughter continues]

249
00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,500
[Ratley]
The cookie cutters. Cookie-cutter males.

250
00:19:29,209 --> 00:19:33,881
And cookie-cutter means
there was no difference in their religion,

251
00:19:33,964 --> 00:19:37,467
in their state of origin, or anything.

252
00:19:37,551 --> 00:19:40,095
They were just all exactly the same.

253
00:19:47,227 --> 00:19:50,898
[Johnson]
My father felt very strongly about having

254
00:19:50,981 --> 00:19:53,901
a group of women astronauts.

255
00:19:55,319 --> 00:20:00,199
If you’re a pioneer, you just start
with your instincts, I guess.

256
00:20:01,783 --> 00:20:04,953
He felt that women had
a definite role in space,

257
00:20:05,037 --> 00:20:10,918
that there were... physically and
emotionally, that they had some attributes

258
00:20:11,001 --> 00:20:14,254
that were stronger
than the male astronauts’.

259
00:20:15,714 --> 00:20:18,592
[Johnson]
And he wanted to test their capability

260
00:20:18,675 --> 00:20:24,514
by comparing their test results to
the test results of the male astronauts.

261
00:20:26,475 --> 00:20:28,018
Clearly,

262
00:20:28,769 --> 00:20:34,316
one of the women in his life
that catapulted that into action

263
00:20:34,399 --> 00:20:36,526
was his relationship with Jackie Cochran.

264
00:20:40,197 --> 00:20:44,159
I’m Jacqueline Cochran, and I really would
like to be the first woman in space.

265
00:20:44,826 --> 00:20:51,041
Anyone who’s spent as much time in the air
as I have in the last 34 years

266
00:20:51,124 --> 00:20:54,544
is bound to yearn
to go a little bit farther.

267
00:20:55,462 --> 00:20:58,090
[Johnson] Jackie Cochran was my godmother.

268
00:20:58,674 --> 00:21:00,008
And…

269
00:21:01,009 --> 00:21:03,929
Floyd Odlum actually was
on our board of directors.

270
00:21:04,012 --> 00:21:05,389
I think he was the president.

271
00:21:05,472 --> 00:21:09,726
He was the original chairman of our board
for the Lovelace Clinic.

272
00:21:10,477 --> 00:21:13,480
So he turned to Floyd Odlum and Jackie,

273
00:21:14,439 --> 00:21:18,068
and they financed that study.

274
00:21:28,245 --> 00:21:29,871
[Jessen] This was his program.

275
00:21:29,955 --> 00:21:34,584
Dr. Lovelace did it on his own,
outside of his contract with NASA…

276
00:21:35,627 --> 00:21:40,299
and invited 25 women
to come and take the physical exam,

277
00:21:40,382 --> 00:21:43,218
very similar
to what the astronauts were taking.

278
00:21:44,261 --> 00:21:49,850
They had a list
of the top pilots that they knew.

279
00:21:49,933 --> 00:21:54,396
And one of the first that was called
was Jerrie Cobb.

280
00:21:55,147 --> 00:21:56,898
She was a great gal.

281
00:21:57,858 --> 00:22:01,111
I was asked by Dr. Lovelace
and General Flickinger

282
00:22:01,194 --> 00:22:04,740
to be the first woman
to go through these astronaut tests.

283
00:22:04,823 --> 00:22:06,241
This was in 1959.

284
00:22:06,325 --> 00:22:10,996
Both of them had just come back
from a scientific meeting in Moscow.

285
00:22:11,079 --> 00:22:15,500
At that time, they had heard the Russians
were gonna train women cosmonauts.

286
00:22:15,584 --> 00:22:17,627
And this was over three years ago.

287
00:22:17,711 --> 00:22:20,797
So they thought we ought to get together
and start doing something.

288
00:22:20,881 --> 00:22:24,134
They asked me if I would be the first
woman to undergo the astronaut test,

289
00:22:24,217 --> 00:22:27,471
which I was, couldn’t say yes fast enough,
and then...

290
00:22:27,554 --> 00:22:30,057
[Funk] Now, I knew Jerrie
because she flew the Aero Commander.

291
00:22:30,140 --> 00:22:32,392
She had done a lot of flying.

292
00:22:32,476 --> 00:22:36,772
She flew a lot into South America.
And I knew her life.

293
00:22:36,855 --> 00:22:39,900
I knew Jerrie Cobb, yeah.
She was a good pilot.

294
00:22:39,983 --> 00:22:43,361
But I think I could fly
as well as she could. [chuckles]

295
00:22:43,445 --> 00:22:46,865
She may not think so,
but I think I could’ve.

296
00:22:46,948 --> 00:22:50,535
Why, in the Western program,
do you think there is a need,

297
00:22:50,619 --> 00:22:53,371
if you feel there is a need,
for women in space?

298
00:22:53,747 --> 00:22:57,542
Well, it’s the same thing as,
is there a need for men in space?

299
00:22:57,626 --> 00:23:00,003
I mean, if we’re going to send
a human being into space,

300
00:23:00,087 --> 00:23:02,130
we should send the one most qualified.

301
00:23:02,214 --> 00:23:06,468
And in certain areas women have a lot
to offer, and other areas, men do.

302
00:23:06,551 --> 00:23:08,303
I think that we ought to use both.

303
00:23:08,386 --> 00:23:11,223
[Funk] Jerrie and I were from Oklahoma.
I was at Fort Sill.

304
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:14,851
She called and said,
“Do you want to be an astronaut?”

305
00:23:14,935 --> 00:23:16,394
I said, “Absolutely.”

306
00:23:16,478 --> 00:23:17,729
I knew Wally.

307
00:23:17,813 --> 00:23:22,943
And Wally took me aside one time
when we were having a competition,

308
00:23:23,026 --> 00:23:26,738
and she said, “I’m in a secret program.

309
00:23:26,822 --> 00:23:30,075
It’s an astronaut program,
and it’s very secret.”

310
00:23:30,450 --> 00:23:34,162
And I thought, “That sounds like fun.
I think I want to get involved in that.”

311
00:23:34,246 --> 00:23:37,082
So here’s my letter
to Dr. Lovelace saying,

312
00:23:37,666 --> 00:23:40,544
“I’m physically fit and I’m a pilot,

313
00:23:40,627 --> 00:23:42,629
and I’d like to participate
in your tests.”

314
00:23:42,712 --> 00:23:46,133
And here’s his letter back.
And he encloses a card

315
00:23:46,216 --> 00:23:50,387
which outlines the qualifications
of the women astronauts.

316
00:23:51,012 --> 00:23:54,766
First thing they ask you is,
“What are your total flying hours?”

317
00:23:54,850 --> 00:23:56,309
I can tell ’em that.

318
00:23:56,726 --> 00:23:59,062
Then they wanna know your total jet hours,

319
00:23:59,146 --> 00:24:02,399
your aircraft flown hours in each:
balloon flights, parachute jumps,

320
00:24:02,482 --> 00:24:04,651
hours flown over 20,000 feet,

321
00:24:04,734 --> 00:24:08,238
hours flown over 30,000 feet,
hours flown over 40,000 feet,

322
00:24:08,321 --> 00:24:12,576
low-pressure chamber indoctrination,
explosive decompression experience,

323
00:24:12,659 --> 00:24:15,078
partial pressure suit experience.

324
00:24:15,162 --> 00:24:17,998
- I could answer number one.
- [Ratley laughs]

325
00:24:18,081 --> 00:24:21,585
Yeah. None of us had any qualification.
She was an engineer.

326
00:24:21,668 --> 00:24:23,336
We were subjects to be tested.

327
00:24:31,094 --> 00:24:32,846
[Bob Steadman] B was on that list.

328
00:24:33,513 --> 00:24:37,851
This was something
that fit so much what she was.

329
00:24:37,934 --> 00:24:39,978
I mean, she was…

330
00:24:41,188 --> 00:24:45,567
one of the finest professional pilots
in the country, bar none, men or women.

331
00:24:47,527 --> 00:24:49,738
[Woltman] They contacted me. I...

332
00:24:49,821 --> 00:24:54,659
And I guess they knew I was flying,
and so they talked to me about it.

333
00:25:04,711 --> 00:25:08,882
I was on a tour of Europe, and there were,
kind of, rumors in the background

334
00:25:08,965 --> 00:25:12,219
of what was going on
and how names had been asked for.

335
00:25:12,719 --> 00:25:14,930
And the next thing I knew,
I got a phone call.

336
00:25:18,516 --> 00:25:21,436
[Jessen] I went to my boss,
and I said, “I’ve been invited

337
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,397
to go take an astronaut physical exam.”

338
00:25:24,940 --> 00:25:27,275
My boss said, “We cannot spare you.”

339
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:31,905
So I quit my job
to go take this... these tests.

340
00:25:34,324 --> 00:25:36,076
[Funk] I was the youngest.

341
00:25:36,159 --> 00:25:38,453
Second one to go through after Jerrie,

342
00:25:38,995 --> 00:25:42,165
maybe the third, in February of ’61.

343
00:25:45,168 --> 00:25:48,213
There were three phases
of astronaut testing.

344
00:25:48,672 --> 00:25:51,549
Phase one was at Lovelace Clinic
in Albuquerque.

345
00:25:52,717 --> 00:25:55,637
My parents drove me there
and had to sign me in.

346
00:25:56,930 --> 00:25:59,349
We went through either singly or in pairs.

347
00:25:59,432 --> 00:26:03,353
And I went through with Janey Hart,
who was a marvelous person.

348
00:26:05,105 --> 00:26:08,316
[Ratley] Janey Hart, you know,
you weren’t supposed to have children,

349
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:09,985
and Janey Hart had eight.

350
00:26:10,068 --> 00:26:12,529
They were so curious about her
that they invited her in.

351
00:26:12,612 --> 00:26:16,032
So she and I went through it together.
We were the last two to go together.

352
00:26:31,631 --> 00:26:33,508
[Funk] It took five days.

353
00:26:34,092 --> 00:26:36,553
And they were quite incredible,

354
00:26:36,636 --> 00:26:41,808
because they didn’t really know
what to think our bodies would do

355
00:26:41,891 --> 00:26:46,563
in the outer atmospheres,
or how we were going to react.

356
00:26:57,991 --> 00:27:02,829
The testing was arduous.
It was thorough and long hours.

357
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:08,376
It was a little bit more thorough
than most physical examinations.

358
00:27:09,878 --> 00:27:12,047
[Jessen]
You’d run from one test to the next test.

359
00:27:12,547 --> 00:27:14,924
[Funk] We had pulmonary function tests…

360
00:27:15,008 --> 00:27:18,803
Some of ’em were not... not, uh,
real friendly to the body.

361
00:27:18,887 --> 00:27:22,057
…total body determination tests…

362
00:27:22,140 --> 00:27:25,935
- Some of ’em were kind of exotic.
- [Funk] Every tooth was taken, pictures.

363
00:27:26,019 --> 00:27:28,146
[Jessen] Some of ’em were kind of strange.

364
00:27:28,229 --> 00:27:31,566
Every bone in my body had an X-ray.

365
00:27:32,317 --> 00:27:35,362
[Jessen]
They x-rayed and x-rayed and x-rayed.

366
00:27:38,156 --> 00:27:42,535
[Funk] They gave me two cups,
and one said “Urine” and one said “Stool.”

367
00:27:42,619 --> 00:27:45,622
I was having fun.
I just kinda laughed at some of the stuff.

368
00:27:45,705 --> 00:27:48,041
I said, “I don’t know what ‘stool’ is.
A stool, to me,

369
00:27:48,124 --> 00:27:51,795
is when I was sitting on a stool
milking cows in Taos.

370
00:27:52,212 --> 00:27:53,463
I don’t know what you mean.”

371
00:27:53,963 --> 00:27:56,966
“Oh. A stool is
when you go to the bathroom.”

372
00:27:57,050 --> 00:27:58,843
I said, “You don’t want that, do you?”

373
00:27:58,927 --> 00:28:02,097
I’ll tell you very confidentially,
don’t tell anybody this,

374
00:28:02,514 --> 00:28:04,641
we had an enema every morning.

375
00:28:04,974 --> 00:28:06,184
I said, “Wow.”

376
00:28:06,267 --> 00:28:09,062
There were some really oddball things
like that.

377
00:28:09,145 --> 00:28:13,566
They inject water,
ten-degree water into my ears,

378
00:28:13,650 --> 00:28:17,946
and that’s when your body
just does not… function.

379
00:28:18,279 --> 00:28:20,407
You have no control over your body.

380
00:28:20,490 --> 00:28:23,368
Oh, yeah. I remember that. Yeah.

381
00:28:23,451 --> 00:28:25,620
I didn’t like it, but I did it.

382
00:28:25,703 --> 00:28:27,831
What they were doing to those gals
was just ugly.

383
00:28:28,623 --> 00:28:31,084
Really none of the tests
stood out that much.

384
00:28:31,167 --> 00:28:33,169
[machine whirring]

385
00:28:36,798 --> 00:28:41,678
Shortly after I left, Jacqueline Cochran
was coming in for an interview too.

386
00:28:42,762 --> 00:28:44,431
And she had taken some tests,

387
00:28:44,514 --> 00:28:48,393
and he was going to give her
the results of the tests, he told me.

388
00:28:48,476 --> 00:28:51,813
And I believe he told me,
“She’s not gonna be happy with this.”

389
00:28:51,896 --> 00:28:55,942
So she found that she wasn’t gonna be able
to be a part of the program.

390
00:28:56,025 --> 00:28:57,861
I think that was kind of a downer for her.

391
00:28:57,944 --> 00:29:00,864
She was too old, I think, at that point,

392
00:29:00,947 --> 00:29:04,200
to even be considered for spaceflight.

393
00:29:05,744 --> 00:29:07,370
Those aren’t the issues to her.

394
00:29:08,663 --> 00:29:12,125
[man] Would you like to be
a Mercury astronaut, or “astronautte”?

395
00:29:12,208 --> 00:29:14,919
[Cochran]
I would like very, very much to be.

396
00:29:15,003 --> 00:29:18,298
I don’t think age has a thing to do with
it as long as you’re healthy and vigorous,

397
00:29:18,381 --> 00:29:21,551
and I’m all of that. After I got through
yesterday, you know what I did?

398
00:29:21,634 --> 00:29:23,874
- [man] No, what?
- Went out and played 18 holes of golf,

399
00:29:23,928 --> 00:29:25,180
and then cooked dinner.

400
00:29:32,604 --> 00:29:35,064
[Ratley] The very last day,
they told me I had passed.

401
00:29:35,982 --> 00:29:38,109
And that meant a great deal to me.

402
00:29:38,902 --> 00:29:41,070
It was very nice
when some of the doctors said

403
00:29:41,154 --> 00:29:44,532
that I had done very well on these tests.

404
00:29:46,451 --> 00:29:49,662
Remarkably, you know,
after having nine full pregnancies,

405
00:29:50,622 --> 00:29:53,666
she just had a body that wouldn’t quit.
It was great.

406
00:29:54,667 --> 00:30:00,381
And of the 23ish girls who were taken,
only 13 passed.

407
00:30:01,925 --> 00:30:05,553
[Bob Steadman] Later, when B sat down
with Randy Lovelace,

408
00:30:06,179 --> 00:30:10,892
he was absolutely thrilled
at what the women so far had done.

409
00:30:28,743 --> 00:30:32,455
I was following it. Of course I was
following what the Russians were doing.

410
00:30:32,539 --> 00:30:34,332
[speaking Russian]

411
00:30:56,354 --> 00:30:58,815
[Jim Hart] When Yuri Gagarin went up,

412
00:30:58,898 --> 00:31:02,318
you know,
just a phenomenal thing to happen.

413
00:31:03,319 --> 00:31:06,239
That was a huge event.
All of us were conscious of it.

414
00:31:06,322 --> 00:31:09,993
All of us were conscious
of the competition with Russia,

415
00:31:10,076 --> 00:31:12,453
the Soviet Union, at the same time.

416
00:31:12,537 --> 00:31:15,415
So there was... there was the space race

417
00:31:15,498 --> 00:31:18,501
as well as
just the scientific adventure hook.

418
00:31:20,879 --> 00:31:23,923
My memories are,
“Why can’t the Americans do it?”

419
00:31:24,757 --> 00:31:27,093
This was the feeling at the time.

420
00:31:27,844 --> 00:31:30,597
[Bob Steadman]
The Russians were basically crowing,

421
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,809
and they were clearly in advance
of our space program.

422
00:31:37,896 --> 00:31:42,191
Our Mercury men were being prepared,
basically, to compete.

423
00:31:42,275 --> 00:31:45,862
[man on radio] Three… two… one… zero.

424
00:31:49,115 --> 00:31:50,199
Liftoff.

425
00:31:50,283 --> 00:31:53,286
All right, now.
Liftoff, and the clock has started.

426
00:31:55,288 --> 00:31:57,749
Yes, sir. Reading you loud and clear.

427
00:31:59,208 --> 00:32:02,086
This is Freedom 7 . The fuel is go.

428
00:32:06,424 --> 00:32:11,846
They were strapped into a seat
and sent up there and brought back down.

429
00:32:11,930 --> 00:32:15,016
And, “Whoopee, here I am.
I made it, but I didn’t fly it.”

430
00:32:26,611 --> 00:32:30,823
Phase two was in Oklahoma City,
and I stayed at Jerrie’s house.

431
00:32:30,907 --> 00:32:33,368
And that was the psychological tests.

432
00:32:33,451 --> 00:32:37,914
I heard about a test where
you were submerged in a tank of water and,

433
00:32:37,997 --> 00:32:43,002
for a long period of time,
lost all the normal five senses.

434
00:32:43,086 --> 00:32:44,963
That was a very interesting experiment

435
00:32:45,046 --> 00:32:48,049
where they isolate you
in a tank of warm water.

436
00:32:51,511 --> 00:32:53,846
[Funk] The tank was in a great big room.

437
00:32:54,347 --> 00:32:56,808
They had already
put the earplugs in my ears.

438
00:32:56,891 --> 00:33:00,937
And I had just enough foam rubber
to go under the small of my back,

439
00:33:01,020 --> 00:33:04,816
and I was to lay on the water
as long as possible.

440
00:33:08,486 --> 00:33:12,615
So I get in the water, and I get
comfortable, and I spread-eagle out.

441
00:33:12,699 --> 00:33:15,326
And I thought,
“There’s something wrong here.”

442
00:33:16,619 --> 00:33:18,246
I splashed the water,

443
00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:20,331
couldn’t feel it.

444
00:33:21,833 --> 00:33:24,377
Splashed my face, couldn’t feel any water.

445
00:33:25,253 --> 00:33:26,796
Couldn’t feel anything.

446
00:33:29,215 --> 00:33:32,301
[Ann Hart] She found it interesting
that in that sensory deprivation chamber,

447
00:33:32,385 --> 00:33:37,557
so-called, that the women
were perfectly happy to be there forever,

448
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,893
and that the men just couldn’t take it.
They started crawling out of their skin.

449
00:33:41,352 --> 00:33:43,438
[laughing] You just sort of feel nothing.

450
00:33:43,521 --> 00:33:46,941
It’s very relaxing, I found it,
and very peaceful.

451
00:33:47,025 --> 00:33:49,861
I’d been on quite a schedule
before I went in there.

452
00:33:49,944 --> 00:33:52,030
So I sort of welcomed the rest,

453
00:33:52,113 --> 00:33:55,283
and set a record
for staying in nine and a half hours.

454
00:33:55,700 --> 00:34:00,872
But most of the people,
the average, uh, mature person,

455
00:34:00,955 --> 00:34:04,208
after about three hours of this,
starts hallucinations.

456
00:34:13,384 --> 00:34:16,804
[Funk] What’s gone on here is
the temperature of the water,

457
00:34:16,888 --> 00:34:18,514
the humidity of the room…

458
00:34:19,849 --> 00:34:23,144
was my exact body temperature

459
00:34:23,227 --> 00:34:27,857
to make me feel in a weightless situation,
laying on the water.

460
00:34:37,533 --> 00:34:40,703
This is what they thought
space travel would be like.

461
00:34:42,872 --> 00:34:44,373
So I lay there.

462
00:34:46,125 --> 00:34:48,002
I think I fell asleep

463
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:50,671
maybe for a minute or so.

464
00:35:05,728 --> 00:35:08,731
I was thinking
about how wonderful it would be

465
00:35:09,398 --> 00:35:12,860
to be up there and feel the lightness.

466
00:35:14,695 --> 00:35:16,197
It was freedom.

467
00:35:17,949 --> 00:35:20,451
You can look up, you can see the stars…

468
00:35:21,911 --> 00:35:23,329
the moon, and the sun.

469
00:35:25,248 --> 00:35:27,291
And you wonder, “How does it all work?”

470
00:35:31,671 --> 00:35:33,422
I didn’t have the answers.

471
00:35:34,632 --> 00:35:36,759
But I was thinking about all this.

472
00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:43,808
Floating amongst the stars,
that is my objective.

473
00:35:49,522 --> 00:35:53,734
The third testing was to go
to Pensacola, Florida with the navy.

474
00:35:53,818 --> 00:35:56,988
We were all going to go down there
at the same time, all 13 of us.

475
00:35:57,071 --> 00:35:59,111
It would be the first time
we would meet each other.

476
00:36:01,325 --> 00:36:04,203
[Ratley]
This is a letter from Jacqueline Cochran.

477
00:36:06,497 --> 00:36:10,960
See, “Dr. Randolph Lovelace II
of the Lovelace Foundation

478
00:36:11,043 --> 00:36:16,257
has notified you of the invitation
to go to Pensacola, Florida

479
00:36:16,340 --> 00:36:19,802
for a... take a series of tests

480
00:36:19,886 --> 00:36:23,514
to start on September 18, 1961.

481
00:36:24,473 --> 00:36:26,684
I strongly urge you to go.”

482
00:36:32,190 --> 00:36:34,400
[Jessen]
We were gonna get jet orientation.

483
00:36:34,483 --> 00:36:36,194
We were gonna get the centrifuge.

484
00:36:36,277 --> 00:36:39,113
There were just gonna be lots
of neat things that were gonna happen.

485
00:36:40,698 --> 00:36:43,492
Flying jets,
oh, she was looking forward to that.

486
00:36:53,669 --> 00:36:57,256
They had been given their tickets,
their time. Everything was set up.

487
00:37:00,301 --> 00:37:03,930
[Ratley] We were supposed to report there
on, I think it was on a Monday,

488
00:37:04,388 --> 00:37:08,142
and I remember B Steadman telling me
she had her golf clubs packed.

489
00:37:19,195 --> 00:37:21,155
[Jessen] That’s when NASA got wind of it.

490
00:37:22,990 --> 00:37:26,035
They didn’t know anything
about Dr. Lovelace’s program.

491
00:37:30,122 --> 00:37:33,834
“Regret to advise
arrangements at Pensacola canceled.

492
00:37:34,543 --> 00:37:38,506
Probably will not be possible
to carry out this part of the program.

493
00:37:38,589 --> 00:37:42,843
You may return expense advance allotment
to Lovelace Foundation.”

494
00:37:45,012 --> 00:37:46,264
Here’s another one.

495
00:37:47,223 --> 00:37:50,851
“Miss Cobb has just informed us
from Washington that she has been unable

496
00:37:50,935 --> 00:37:55,231
to reverse the decision
postponing the Florida testing.

497
00:37:56,065 --> 00:37:59,318
I’m very sorry for such short notice,
but it is unavoidable.”

498
00:38:04,615 --> 00:38:06,617
[applause]

499
00:38:06,951 --> 00:38:10,538
[Johnson] When he had the results,
which he thought were superior to the men,

500
00:38:10,621 --> 00:38:14,292
so he did tell us that
and we all thought that was really cool,

501
00:38:14,750 --> 00:38:16,752
he took the results to Washington.

502
00:38:16,836 --> 00:38:18,254
[chuckling] They said,

503
00:38:18,337 --> 00:38:21,924
“We have no need for women astronauts.
Forget it.”

504
00:38:22,758 --> 00:38:26,470
There was certainly no great desire
on the part of NASA.

505
00:38:26,929 --> 00:38:32,601
In fact, I’m confident that
they were surprised, terribly surprised,

506
00:38:32,685 --> 00:38:36,105
by the fact
that the women succeeded as they did.

507
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:41,360
They did not want this program,
pure and simple.

508
00:38:43,404 --> 00:38:46,949
Said it had to be the biggest
slap in the face he’d ever had.

509
00:38:48,659 --> 00:38:52,204
I mean, it had to be… pretty devastating.

510
00:39:01,922 --> 00:39:03,924
[Ratley] It was very heartbreaking for me…

511
00:39:05,634 --> 00:39:08,512
because I wanted to go on and pursue this.

512
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:15,227
But we kept getting letters
from Jerrie Cobb:

513
00:39:15,311 --> 00:39:18,230
“Keep up your hopes.
Keep up your aviation.

514
00:39:19,899 --> 00:39:24,111
Maybe we can get the program reinstated
and go on.”

515
00:39:30,951 --> 00:39:32,244
Shortly after,

516
00:39:32,703 --> 00:39:36,499
I was at an airport where there was
a lot of helicopter training.

517
00:39:38,918 --> 00:39:42,505
I just decided,
“I think I’ll learn how to do that too.”

518
00:39:44,715 --> 00:39:48,177
All the men were jealous of this woman
flying a helicopter.

519
00:39:48,761 --> 00:39:51,263
And they’d park it
real close to the hangar.

520
00:39:51,347 --> 00:39:55,309
And I was a little afraid
to take it up and over into a hover.

521
00:39:56,977 --> 00:39:59,647
But I kind of put it out of my mind.
I didn’t care.

522
00:40:01,649 --> 00:40:03,818
I was going to keep on fighting.

523
00:40:10,741 --> 00:40:12,785
[Jessen] Well, I was disappointed.

524
00:40:13,369 --> 00:40:17,373
But about that time I decided that I would
like to move out of flight instructing

525
00:40:17,456 --> 00:40:19,834
and go into a different kind of flying.

526
00:40:20,459 --> 00:40:24,380
So off I went
to work for Beech Aircraft Corporation.

527
00:40:25,214 --> 00:40:30,302
And they were getting ready to introduce
a new model airplane named the Musketeer.

528
00:40:37,351 --> 00:40:41,230
There were only two women in the United
States flying for aircraft manufacturers,

529
00:40:41,313 --> 00:40:44,775
and one of ’em was Jerrie Cobb,
who was flying for Aero Commander.

530
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,905
The other one was Joyce Case,
who was flying for Beech Aircraft.

531
00:40:53,534 --> 00:40:56,579
They were getting ready
to introduce a Musketeer.

532
00:40:56,662 --> 00:41:00,791
They were gonna fly three of ’em
in all 48 contiguous states for 90 days,

533
00:41:01,375 --> 00:41:02,918
uh, introducing the airplane.

534
00:41:04,295 --> 00:41:07,506
And of course,
if two of the three pilots are female,

535
00:41:07,590 --> 00:41:09,133
we’ll get a lot of free publicity.

536
00:41:10,009 --> 00:41:13,929
And I can tell you that we always flew
in a dress and high heels.

537
00:41:26,484 --> 00:41:29,320
We were workin’ hard.
We were flyin’, flyin’, flyin’.

538
00:41:30,696 --> 00:41:32,281
We got used to flying in formation.

539
00:41:32,364 --> 00:41:35,576
We knew nothing about flying formation
when we started out.

540
00:41:37,453 --> 00:41:40,289
But after a few days of it,
we got pretty good at it.

541
00:41:45,085 --> 00:41:48,589
We made some 80 changes
in that airplane the first year.

542
00:41:50,508 --> 00:41:53,260
So we were test pilots.
No question about that.

543
00:41:59,141 --> 00:42:01,268
I was hired right after the tests

544
00:42:01,352 --> 00:42:05,773
to go to California
and be with Center Aviation.

545
00:42:06,941 --> 00:42:11,487
I bought my Stearman,
and I taught myself acrobatics.

546
00:42:22,414 --> 00:42:24,416
I love it when I can go flying.

547
00:42:25,376 --> 00:42:27,545
I love it when I can do acrobatics.

548
00:42:30,464 --> 00:42:33,717
It is fabulous because you are free.

549
00:42:33,801 --> 00:42:37,054
You’re not attached to the gravity
of the Earth.

550
00:42:37,555 --> 00:42:40,349
You can do what you want to do.

551
00:42:40,975 --> 00:42:44,728
And that’s how I feel
and that’s how I think.

552
00:42:44,812 --> 00:42:46,105
Freedom.

553
00:43:20,139 --> 00:43:22,141
I dream about space.

554
00:43:23,934 --> 00:43:25,519
I wanna be up there.

555
00:43:26,895 --> 00:43:28,522
That’s part of me.

556
00:43:37,114 --> 00:43:39,241
How am I gonna get up there?

557
00:43:39,325 --> 00:43:40,951
I have to imagine.

558
00:43:41,952 --> 00:43:44,955
I’m not a jet. I am not a person.

559
00:43:46,206 --> 00:43:48,208
I’m a spirit going up.

560
00:43:56,467 --> 00:43:57,593
[man on radio] Roger.

561
00:43:58,093 --> 00:44:00,322
- Fifteen seconds.
- [man #2] Good Lord, ride all the way.

562
00:44:00,346 --> 00:44:02,348
[man] In Godspeed, John Glenn.

563
00:44:19,573 --> 00:44:22,993
[Bob Steadman] Glenn was
the first to orbit. The first American.

564
00:44:23,077 --> 00:44:27,373
Roger. Cape is go, and I am go.
Our capsule is in good shape.

565
00:44:31,085 --> 00:44:35,714
[Bob Steadman] And, let’s face it, you’re
going up there in an untested system.

566
00:44:35,798 --> 00:44:39,301
Nobody, nobody really knows
what’s going to happen.

567
00:44:39,385 --> 00:44:43,722
Roger. Zero G and I feel fine.
Capsule is turning around.

568
00:44:44,682 --> 00:44:46,892
Oh, that view is tremendous.

569
00:44:47,601 --> 00:44:50,771
[Bob Steadman]
So I give Glenn credit for courage.

570
00:44:51,605 --> 00:44:53,690
I give them all credit for courage.

571
00:44:54,108 --> 00:44:56,694
[man] Uh, Friendship 7, this is Cape.
Do you read?

572
00:44:57,403 --> 00:45:00,280
This is Friendship 7.
A real fireball outside.

573
00:45:00,739 --> 00:45:04,952
At the same time, I give the women
the same credit for the same courage.

574
00:45:06,412 --> 00:45:08,956
Their willingness
to take part in the unknown

575
00:45:09,039 --> 00:45:12,751
was equally strong
and as courageous as that of the men.

576
00:45:19,758 --> 00:45:24,596
About that time,
Jerrie had contacted the women and said,

577
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:29,601
“Okay. Let’s... Let’s make noise
because they’ve cheated us

578
00:45:29,685 --> 00:45:33,188
by not letting us go to Pensacola
and take more testing.

579
00:45:33,272 --> 00:45:35,107
So the secret is out.”

580
00:45:45,451 --> 00:45:50,247
Jerrie Cobb and Janey Hart figured they
would go up before this Senate committee

581
00:45:50,330 --> 00:45:55,711
and they would get the program reinstated,
because Janey Hart had political clout.

582
00:45:58,630 --> 00:46:01,508
My father was elected to the Senate

583
00:46:01,592 --> 00:46:04,720
after having been
the lieutenant governor of Michigan.

584
00:46:06,263 --> 00:46:11,852
Janey and Jerrie Cobb felt
that Congress ought to tell NASA,

585
00:46:11,935 --> 00:46:14,730
“Now, let’s get with this. Let’s do this.”

586
00:46:26,408 --> 00:46:28,368
[gavel raps]

587
00:46:33,332 --> 00:46:35,667
[Ratley] “Both Miss Cobb and Mrs. Hart,

588
00:46:36,043 --> 00:46:38,629
if everyone is agreeable,
we will begin the questioning.”

589
00:46:40,172 --> 00:46:42,883
[Ann Hart]
Janey started with an opening statement.

590
00:46:45,385 --> 00:46:49,014
“I strongly believe women should have
a role in space research.

591
00:46:51,767 --> 00:46:53,977
In fact, it’s inconceivable to me

592
00:46:54,061 --> 00:46:57,940
that the world of outer space
should be restricted to men only,

593
00:46:58,023 --> 00:47:00,192
like some sort of stag club.

594
00:47:02,820 --> 00:47:05,614
A hundred years ago,
it was quite inconceivable

595
00:47:05,697 --> 00:47:09,159
that women should serve
as hospital attendants.

596
00:47:09,493 --> 00:47:12,120
Their essentially frail
and emotional structure

597
00:47:12,204 --> 00:47:16,458
would never stand the horrors
of a military dressing station.

598
00:47:18,126 --> 00:47:22,005
Finally, it was agreed
to allow some women to try it,

599
00:47:22,089 --> 00:47:25,801
provided they were middle-aged and ugly,

600
00:47:26,385 --> 00:47:30,055
ugly women presumably having
more strength of character.

601
00:47:32,516 --> 00:47:33,850
I submit, Mr. Chairman,

602
00:47:33,934 --> 00:47:37,563
that a woman in space today
is no more preposterous

603
00:47:37,646 --> 00:47:40,941
than a woman in a field hospital
a hundred years ago.”

604
00:47:41,525 --> 00:47:43,402
Mrs. Hart,
you’re the mother of eight children.

605
00:47:43,485 --> 00:47:48,615
Do you think it’ll be difficult for
a woman astronaut to also have a family?

606
00:47:50,158 --> 00:47:51,910
In which order? Uh... [chuckles]

607
00:47:51,994 --> 00:47:53,954
- Well, I’m asking you that. Which order?
- Um...

608
00:47:54,037 --> 00:47:56,999
Well, I’ve accomplished
the production of eight children

609
00:47:57,082 --> 00:47:58,625
and am in the process of raising them,

610
00:47:58,709 --> 00:48:03,255
and I’ve still been able to acquire
2,000 hours of flying time

611
00:48:03,338 --> 00:48:05,173
and considerable aeronautical experience,

612
00:48:05,257 --> 00:48:08,969
and also to help my husband, uh,
in his campaigns and so forth.

613
00:48:09,052 --> 00:48:12,389
So this indicates that I’ve been able
to make constructive use of my time

614
00:48:12,472 --> 00:48:15,475
outside of... of, uh having the children.

615
00:48:15,559 --> 00:48:19,438
And I don’t think that the family life
has been sacrificed one bit.

616
00:48:19,521 --> 00:48:22,899
You should probably ask the children this
and see how they feel about it.

617
00:48:22,983 --> 00:48:26,987
For her, if she can have eight kids
in ten years and make it work,

618
00:48:27,070 --> 00:48:30,824
the idea of going to space,
I think, was not that great a challenge.

619
00:48:30,907 --> 00:48:34,953
They once asked her, “Why would you wanna
go to the moon?” This was in the paper.

620
00:48:35,037 --> 00:48:38,832
And she said, “With eight kids,
you’d want to go to the moon too.”

621
00:48:41,877 --> 00:48:45,922
“All right, Miss Cobb. Do you have
a prepared statement? Miss Cobb: Yes.”

622
00:48:51,720 --> 00:48:57,392
[Funk] “We women pilots
who want to be a part of space exploration

623
00:48:57,476 --> 00:49:00,979
are not trying to join
a battle of the sexes.

624
00:49:02,898 --> 00:49:08,070
We seek only a place
in our nation’s space future

625
00:49:08,153 --> 00:49:10,197
without discrimination.

626
00:49:11,031 --> 00:49:13,867
We ask as citizens of the nation

627
00:49:13,950 --> 00:49:19,831
to be allowed to participate
with seriousness and sincerity

628
00:49:19,915 --> 00:49:24,544
in the making of history now,
as women have done in the past.

629
00:49:27,214 --> 00:49:32,219
No nation has yet sent a female
into space.

630
00:49:32,803 --> 00:49:37,766
We offer you 13 women pilot volunteers.”

631
00:49:40,018 --> 00:49:42,729
Miss Cobb, do you think women
are being discriminated against

632
00:49:42,813 --> 00:49:44,231
in the space program?

633
00:49:44,690 --> 00:49:47,734
I don’t think necessarily
they’re being discriminated against.

634
00:49:47,818 --> 00:49:50,445
I think that the rules
have been established

635
00:49:50,529 --> 00:49:52,948
to where it makes... it makes it impossible

636
00:49:53,031 --> 00:49:56,159
for women to meet
the qualifications of astronauts.

637
00:49:57,536 --> 00:50:01,373
[Jim Hart] The most hyped-up
qualifying catch-22, of course,

638
00:50:01,456 --> 00:50:06,211
was that all of them were test pilots
and jet-certified pilots

639
00:50:06,670 --> 00:50:09,423
and fighter pilots, in most cases.

640
00:50:09,506 --> 00:50:13,051
So they had that qualification
that no women had.

641
00:50:13,135 --> 00:50:15,053
But of course, they couldn’t,

642
00:50:15,137 --> 00:50:17,764
because they weren’t allowed
to become jet fighter pilots.

643
00:50:17,848 --> 00:50:19,599
There was a law.

644
00:50:19,683 --> 00:50:23,937
Eisenhower had put a law in
that for women to fly military aircraft,

645
00:50:24,020 --> 00:50:25,355
they had to be men.

646
00:50:26,064 --> 00:50:30,444
I don’t think they should
become astronauts because, uh, uh,

647
00:50:30,527 --> 00:50:33,864
I don’t... men are more mature than women.
[laughs]

648
00:50:33,947 --> 00:50:37,909
I think they should. I think that women
should have an equal right with men,

649
00:50:37,993 --> 00:50:42,247
and if they would qualify and like to go,
they should be trained and sent.

650
00:50:42,330 --> 00:50:46,960
Yes, I do. Because they’re, well,
they’re lighter, and small, and…

651
00:50:48,545 --> 00:50:49,755
[both chuckle]

652
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:51,757
Well, I just think they ought to be.

653
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:55,218
- [man] And what about your opinion?
- No, I disagree. I think that, uh...

654
00:50:55,302 --> 00:50:59,055
I don’t think women are physically fit
to be astronauts.

655
00:50:59,139 --> 00:51:01,808
I certainly do think
women should be astronauts.

656
00:51:01,892 --> 00:51:06,062
If they’re physically fit, mentally alert,
they’re not any different than men are.

657
00:51:06,146 --> 00:51:08,899
In fact, there are less women
going to psychiatrists than men,

658
00:51:08,982 --> 00:51:11,568
so that gives you some idea
as to their mental capabilities.

659
00:51:15,655 --> 00:51:17,824
[low chatter, scattered applause]

660
00:51:24,247 --> 00:51:28,376
[Jessen] The people who held the hearing,
they were in such awe of the astronauts

661
00:51:28,460 --> 00:51:31,463
who came and spoke and testified.

662
00:51:32,756 --> 00:51:36,968
Scott Carpenter and John Glenn
gave their point of view.

663
00:51:38,470 --> 00:51:41,890
[Bob Steadman]
John Glenn was the hero. He was God.

664
00:51:42,724 --> 00:51:44,184
Space God.

665
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:47,979
Oh, John Glenn. Yes.

666
00:51:49,022 --> 00:51:52,067
Not one of our family’s
favorite characters,

667
00:51:52,150 --> 00:51:53,777
certainly not Mother’s.

668
00:51:55,862 --> 00:51:57,823
[Ratley] John Glenn made his statement.

669
00:51:59,115 --> 00:52:00,700
“It’s just a fact.

670
00:52:00,784 --> 00:52:05,038
The men go off and fight the wars
and fly the airplanes

671
00:52:05,121 --> 00:52:09,125
and come back
and help design and build and test them.

672
00:52:09,209 --> 00:52:11,336
The fact that the women
are not in this field

673
00:52:11,419 --> 00:52:13,839
is a fact of our social order.”

674
00:52:15,423 --> 00:52:18,677
He said that, “If the women can prove
they’re better than the men,

675
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:23,682
then we’ll welcome them with open arms
to the cheers of the multitude.”

676
00:52:24,933 --> 00:52:26,351
Yeah, right.

677
00:52:26,977 --> 00:52:30,063
But if you could find women
better qualified than yourself,

678
00:52:30,147 --> 00:52:31,857
how would you welcome them in the program?

679
00:52:31,940 --> 00:52:33,567
[laughs]

680
00:52:34,442 --> 00:52:36,236
- They would be very welcome.
- [laughter]

681
00:52:37,612 --> 00:52:42,701
“Can you imagine a woman flying a jet
or flying a dangerous aircraft?”

682
00:52:42,784 --> 00:52:45,579
“Oh! Goodness gracious, no.”

683
00:52:49,332 --> 00:52:53,545
But Jacqueline Cochran had flown the jets.

684
00:52:56,590 --> 00:52:59,301
She’d shattered all kinds of records.

685
00:53:01,511 --> 00:53:05,015
She had access to the jets
because her husband, Floyd Odlum,

686
00:53:05,098 --> 00:53:08,393
was building the jets now
for the air force.

687
00:53:15,358 --> 00:53:18,403
So she proved that the women
could fly the jets.

688
00:53:20,447 --> 00:53:26,286
When it finally came down to the hearing,
the congressional hearing, she testified.

689
00:53:27,704 --> 00:53:30,165
[Ratley]
Of course, Floyd Odlum and Jackie Cochran

690
00:53:30,248 --> 00:53:33,752
were large supporters
of the Lovelace Foundation.

691
00:53:33,835 --> 00:53:35,503
So I didn’t give up hope.

692
00:53:36,212 --> 00:53:38,340
[laughing]

693
00:53:38,423 --> 00:53:39,925
This is great.

694
00:53:43,428 --> 00:53:44,763
Oh, boy.

695
00:53:45,805 --> 00:53:50,060
All right. So I’m reading
from the testimony of Jacqueline Cochran.

696
00:53:51,311 --> 00:53:54,272
“The manned spaceflights
are extremely expensive

697
00:53:54,731 --> 00:53:57,734
and also urgent in the national interests,

698
00:53:57,817 --> 00:54:01,571
and therefore, in selecting astronauts,
it was natural and proper

699
00:54:01,655 --> 00:54:05,450
to sift them from the group of male pilots
who had already proven,

700
00:54:05,533 --> 00:54:09,579
by aircraft testing
and high-speed precision flying,

701
00:54:09,663 --> 00:54:13,041
that they were experienced,
competent, and qualified

702
00:54:13,124 --> 00:54:17,170
to meet possible emergencies
in a new environment.

703
00:54:18,296 --> 00:54:21,257
From all I have been told
by the newspapers,

704
00:54:21,341 --> 00:54:24,177
that we do not want
to slow down our program,

705
00:54:25,011 --> 00:54:27,639
and you are going to have to,
of necessity,

706
00:54:27,722 --> 00:54:32,227
waste a great deal of money
when you take a large group of women in,

707
00:54:32,310 --> 00:54:34,896
because you lose them through marriage.”

708
00:54:38,483 --> 00:54:40,318
I find this stunning.

709
00:54:47,575 --> 00:54:51,579
[Bob Steadman]
Why? Why had Jacqueline Cochran done this?

710
00:54:54,916 --> 00:54:58,962
She had basically knocked down
the women of the space program.

711
00:55:02,132 --> 00:55:04,718
How she stomached it then, I don’t know.

712
00:55:08,138 --> 00:55:10,890
[Ratley] The most shocking thing
about the hearings was that

713
00:55:11,558 --> 00:55:14,060
we felt like Jackie turned against us.

714
00:55:14,769 --> 00:55:20,108
Janey and Jerrie counted on Jackie Cochran
supporting them.

715
00:55:20,191 --> 00:55:23,403
And Jackie Cochran did not do
what they thought she was gonna do.

716
00:55:23,486 --> 00:55:26,156
- That was a shock. Yeah.
- Yeah, it was much of a shock.

717
00:55:26,239 --> 00:55:29,784
Jacqueline Cochran sort of…

718
00:55:29,868 --> 00:55:33,163
Now, she had always
worked with the military.

719
00:55:35,457 --> 00:55:40,295
And so Jackie was convinced by the brass,
by these generals,

720
00:55:40,378 --> 00:55:42,297
if she tried to push this now,

721
00:55:42,380 --> 00:55:46,176
that it was going to have a bad effect
on the program.

722
00:55:46,259 --> 00:55:49,387
In fact, it might even stop the program.

723
00:55:50,305 --> 00:55:53,349
Well, I think that’s ludicrous,
but she bought in.

724
00:55:55,101 --> 00:55:57,062
And they took my testimony.

725
00:55:57,145 --> 00:56:01,858
I sent it around and got
what I was going to say approved

726
00:56:01,941 --> 00:56:03,943
by the chief of staff of the air force,

727
00:56:04,027 --> 00:56:07,781
the chief of naval operations,
and the army,

728
00:56:07,864 --> 00:56:10,325
and with a little note that said,
“This is what I’m gonna say.

729
00:56:10,408 --> 00:56:12,952
But if you don’t agree with it,
I’ll try to avoid testifying

730
00:56:13,036 --> 00:56:14,704
and I won’t say anything.”

731
00:56:15,371 --> 00:56:18,208
[Johnson]
Jackie Cochran was not a feminist.

732
00:56:18,583 --> 00:56:21,920
In my mind, the definition of a feminist

733
00:56:22,003 --> 00:56:26,591
is someone who really champions
and promotes women.

734
00:56:27,550 --> 00:56:31,012
Jackie was a champion of Jackie.

735
00:56:31,096 --> 00:56:36,226
I think if Jackie had been
one of the 13 in that program,

736
00:56:36,309 --> 00:56:39,646
her entire demeanor, her entire testimony,

737
00:56:39,729 --> 00:56:42,941
and everything that she said in that
hearing would have been very different.

738
00:56:48,321 --> 00:56:52,242
After that, Vice President Johnson
canceled the program.

739
00:56:53,034 --> 00:56:54,828
The women were doing too well.

740
00:57:00,792 --> 00:57:04,337
[Johnson] There is a classic letter
signed by Lyndon Johnson.

741
00:57:05,213 --> 00:57:09,050
And he is the one that said,
“This program must stop now,”

742
00:57:09,634 --> 00:57:10,677
and signed it.

743
00:57:15,807 --> 00:57:18,685
His words were, “Stop this now.”

744
00:57:22,605 --> 00:57:26,943
[Johnson] Lyndon Johnson supposedly,
supposedly, said,

745
00:57:27,026 --> 00:57:29,654
“Well, you know,
women have their periods.”

746
00:57:30,405 --> 00:57:32,866
I wish you could put that on a tampon box,

747
00:57:32,949 --> 00:57:36,035
that you can fly,
you can fly if you’re having your period.

748
00:57:37,954 --> 00:57:43,209
It was so typical, in that day and age,
of men and how they judged women.

749
00:57:44,878 --> 00:57:46,838
There were any number of ways

750
00:57:46,921 --> 00:57:50,049
to keep them from achieving
what they wanted to achieve.

751
00:57:50,133 --> 00:57:52,844
[cheering]

752
00:57:57,015 --> 00:58:00,268
[Jim Hart] I think it had as much to do
with the boys not wanting

753
00:58:00,351 --> 00:58:02,604
to have the light taken away from them,

754
00:58:02,687 --> 00:58:06,941
because they were the heroes of our time.

755
00:58:07,025 --> 00:58:12,322
One beautiful woman as an astronaut

756
00:58:12,405 --> 00:58:15,575
would have just dominated the news…

757
00:58:17,285 --> 00:58:20,455
to the extent that
the other seven would feel...

758
00:58:20,538 --> 00:58:24,042
[gasps] “What has gone wrong,
and where’s my money?”

759
00:58:27,921 --> 00:58:33,176
If the gentlemen who denied the Mercury 13

760
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:37,889
were comfortable in their skin,
they would have behaved differently.

761
00:58:37,972 --> 00:58:42,018
But underneath it all,
it’s just some little boy who’s afraid.

762
00:58:43,811 --> 00:58:46,397
[Johnson]
We all know why it didn’t happen.

763
00:58:46,481 --> 00:58:48,316
And that goes back to this issue of…

764
00:58:50,777 --> 00:58:55,323
uh, just prejudice,
good old-fashioned prejudice.

765
00:58:55,406 --> 00:58:59,327
- Of course they were prejudiced.
- It was a good old boy network.

766
00:58:59,410 --> 00:59:02,163
And there was no such thing
as a “good old girl” network.

767
00:59:02,247 --> 00:59:06,251
I was disappointed,
’cause I knew I did it well, and...

768
00:59:06,334 --> 00:59:10,421
But they didn’t like that, or they didn’t
like any of the people doing it.

769
00:59:10,505 --> 00:59:12,465
So that was the end of that one.

770
00:59:17,762 --> 00:59:23,268
Years, years later,
Jackie admitted to me she was embarrassed,

771
00:59:23,351 --> 00:59:24,978
she was regretful…

772
00:59:26,396 --> 00:59:30,316
and somewhat ashamed, and told me so.

773
00:59:42,537 --> 00:59:46,165
In order to beat the Russians to the moon,
we first have to catch up with them.

774
00:59:46,249 --> 00:59:47,792
When do you think this might happen,

775
00:59:47,875 --> 00:59:50,753
and what do you expect
their next space mission to be?

776
00:59:50,837 --> 00:59:53,256
A little difficult to pinpoint
where we stand in a race

777
00:59:53,339 --> 00:59:57,051
when the opposition does everything
under cloak-and-dagger type secrecy,

778
00:59:57,135 --> 01:00:00,805
where we don’t know what they’re doing.
You don’t know what you’re racing against.

779
01:00:00,888 --> 01:00:03,766
You don’t have any idea, their mission?
Supposed to be one quite soon.

780
01:00:03,850 --> 01:00:09,063
None at all. I have no secret information
other than what I read in the newspapers.

781
01:00:14,569 --> 01:00:16,487
[crowd cheering, applause]

782
01:00:27,624 --> 01:00:28,791
[Ratley] Valentina,

783
01:00:29,375 --> 01:00:33,796
although she was Russian and we wished
the first one would have been American,

784
01:00:34,464 --> 01:00:36,758
she still helped the program.

785
01:00:42,764 --> 01:00:47,101
[Jessen] It was a bold move
to climb into one of those vehicles

786
01:00:47,185 --> 01:00:51,898
and shoot up into space
and then see what happens next.

787
01:01:11,709 --> 01:01:14,253
Valentina was a sport parachutist.

788
01:01:16,005 --> 01:01:19,384
We would rather have seen
a pilot selected.

789
01:01:20,510 --> 01:01:23,930
But the fact that they had a woman
going into space,

790
01:01:24,389 --> 01:01:29,435
that was a breakthrough,
and, uh, we-we admired her very much.

791
01:01:37,610 --> 01:01:41,572
[Bob Steadman] It was a huge
propaganda victory for the Russians again.

792
01:01:42,073 --> 01:01:45,785
B just sat there and thought
how stupid these men were.

793
01:01:48,871 --> 01:01:52,667
- [cheering]
- [inaudible]

794
01:02:02,301 --> 01:02:05,179
[man] The Russians have put up
a woman cosmonaut.

795
01:02:05,596 --> 01:02:07,515
Is there any room in our space programs

796
01:02:07,598 --> 01:02:10,309
for a woman astronaut,
in your opinion, sir?

797
01:02:10,810 --> 01:02:13,354
Well, we could have used a woman on the...

798
01:02:14,105 --> 01:02:19,902
on the second... actually, the second
orbital Mercury-Atlas that we had.

799
01:02:19,986 --> 01:02:23,322
We could have put a woman up,
the same type of woman,

800
01:02:23,406 --> 01:02:26,367
and flown her instead of the chimpanzee.

801
01:02:26,451 --> 01:02:28,661
- Now...
- [laughter]

802
01:02:32,206 --> 01:02:36,002
[Ann Hart] Mother was really angry.
Really angry. Yeah.

803
01:02:38,254 --> 01:02:41,674
Yes, she was.
And stayed that way, actually.

804
01:02:43,885 --> 01:02:45,970
This termination of this program

805
01:02:46,053 --> 01:02:49,140
began to move her in the direction
of being radicalized.

806
01:02:51,267 --> 01:02:56,731
Mother was one of the very first
founding members of NOW,

807
01:02:56,814 --> 01:02:58,900
the National Organization of Women.

808
01:03:00,026 --> 01:03:02,987
She’d been invited
as a result of the hearings.

809
01:03:05,072 --> 01:03:08,367
She hammered on women’s rights
day and night,

810
01:03:08,451 --> 01:03:10,077
week after week, month after month,

811
01:03:10,161 --> 01:03:14,832
almost, um, just to the point of,
“Here she goes again.”

812
01:04:16,978 --> 01:04:19,981
[woman on radio]
That’s one small step for a woman…

813
01:04:22,066 --> 01:04:24,986
one giant leap for womankind.

814
01:04:30,992 --> 01:04:35,079
[man] You’ve only got 15 minutes before we
want you driving back to the LEM, over.

815
01:04:36,038 --> 01:04:37,081
[woman] Okay.

816
01:04:38,165 --> 01:04:41,586
We’ll get to work.
Sarah, we need to sample here.

817
01:04:41,669 --> 01:04:45,214
[Jim Hart] Going to the moon
was one of those points in the ’60s

818
01:04:45,298 --> 01:04:48,843
where there was something
we could all share with pride.

819
01:04:48,926 --> 01:04:52,722
[woman] It’s a great ride.
Steering’s a little tricky though.

820
01:04:52,805 --> 01:04:57,351
But imagine how much more telling
and significant it would have been

821
01:04:57,435 --> 01:04:59,979
to have a woman step onto the moon.

822
01:05:00,688 --> 01:05:03,441
- [crowd cheering]
- [sirens wailing]

823
01:05:15,536 --> 01:05:18,789
[Ann Hart] It was
a very seriously missed opportunity.

824
01:05:19,415 --> 01:05:22,627
This really could have
changed lives hugely.

825
01:05:22,710 --> 01:05:26,339
Not just in terms of, you know,
little girls getting engineering degrees,

826
01:05:26,422 --> 01:05:29,508
but moving into positions of real power…

827
01:05:30,927 --> 01:05:35,890
implementing practices and policies
that might have represented

828
01:05:35,973 --> 01:05:39,727
that humanitarian component of woman,

829
01:05:39,810 --> 01:05:42,521
you know,
as opposed to the bellicose boys.

830
01:05:42,605 --> 01:05:44,523
[band playing patriotic music]

831
01:05:51,572 --> 01:05:55,409
[Johnson] It would have had an amazing,
positive impact…

832
01:05:56,869 --> 01:05:59,080
empowering women in general,

833
01:05:59,163 --> 01:06:01,832
and overcoming this notion

834
01:06:01,916 --> 01:06:06,295
that women cannot do
what men do in this country.

835
01:06:15,805 --> 01:06:17,556
[band music fades out]

836
01:06:18,766 --> 01:06:20,893
[Funk] I would have liked
to have walked on the moon.

837
01:06:24,230 --> 01:06:28,859
I would have loved to have put the
American flag into the crust of the moon…

838
01:06:32,196 --> 01:06:33,739
and saluted it…

839
01:06:36,158 --> 01:06:40,246
pick up a few rocks, and boy,
those rocks are worth a lot today…

840
01:06:43,332 --> 01:06:46,711
and do the assignments
that had to be done.

841
01:06:46,794 --> 01:06:48,295
I would’ve loved it.

842
01:06:50,589 --> 01:06:54,552
I could’ve walked on it. I could’ve
kicked it out. I could’ve made dust.

843
01:06:55,636 --> 01:06:57,596
Because I know the guys did.

844
01:06:59,265 --> 01:07:01,350
I could’ve done anything they did.

845
01:07:27,585 --> 01:07:32,673
I grew up in Elmira, New York,
and the interesting thing about Elmira is

846
01:07:32,757 --> 01:07:35,551
it’s the location
of the National Soaring Museum.

847
01:07:35,634 --> 01:07:38,345
So when I was a child,
I’d watch the gliders take off and land.

848
01:07:38,763 --> 01:07:41,807
And I wondered,
“What would it be like if I was up there?”

849
01:07:43,100 --> 01:07:46,270
So I started thinking as a child
that maybe I could fly someday.

850
01:07:50,024 --> 01:07:53,486
As I got older,
I decided I wanted to be an astronaut.

851
01:07:55,112 --> 01:07:59,116
But I don’t remember thinking,
“I can’t do this because I’m not a man.”

852
01:07:59,200 --> 01:08:02,411
It was more like,
“Well, I’m going to be an astronaut,

853
01:08:02,495 --> 01:08:03,996
and I’ll just be a woman astronaut.”

854
01:08:19,136 --> 01:08:23,766
The air force opened flight training
to women in 1976.

855
01:08:25,184 --> 01:08:28,562
I was in the first class of women pilots
in the air force

856
01:08:28,646 --> 01:08:30,314
that went right out of college.

857
01:08:30,773 --> 01:08:32,149
And we were in a test program.

858
01:08:33,901 --> 01:08:38,155
So we just knew if we had failed,

859
01:08:38,239 --> 01:08:40,116
that then women wouldn’t continue to fly.

860
01:08:45,329 --> 01:08:47,123
So I tried very, very hard.

861
01:08:47,206 --> 01:08:52,253
I wasn’t gonna date anybody.
I wasn’t gonna have a crazy social life.

862
01:08:52,878 --> 01:08:56,257
Because it was so important to me
to be the best pilot I could be.

863
01:09:06,100 --> 01:09:09,520
I loved the air force.
Absolutely loved it.

864
01:09:13,149 --> 01:09:16,193
But I never told anyone
I wanted to be an astronaut…

865
01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:20,614
because I knew they were gonna tell me
I couldn’t do it.

866
01:09:28,330 --> 01:09:29,415
I was out flying.

867
01:09:31,000 --> 01:09:32,835
I came back to the squadron…

868
01:09:34,378 --> 01:09:36,714
and there was a yellow note
hanging on the bulletin board.

869
01:09:36,797 --> 01:09:38,716
And it said, “Call NASA.”

870
01:09:40,176 --> 01:09:43,345
[sighs] I go, “This is it.
They’re gonna tell me if I’m in or out.”

871
01:09:44,597 --> 01:09:46,515
John Young answered the phone.

872
01:09:46,974 --> 01:09:51,228
He was an astronaut who walked
on the moon during the Apollo program.

873
01:09:52,188 --> 01:09:55,900
The first thing he said to me was,
“Do you still want to be an astronaut?”

874
01:09:55,983 --> 01:09:57,359
I said, “Uh…

875
01:09:59,653 --> 01:10:00,571
yes.”

876
01:10:00,654 --> 01:10:04,408
So he went through this whole long
narrative about what I was gonna do

877
01:10:04,491 --> 01:10:06,931
at Johnson Space Center.
He said, “Do you have any questions?”

878
01:10:06,994 --> 01:10:10,080
I said, “Yes. Am I gonna be a pilot
or a mission specialist?”

879
01:10:10,164 --> 01:10:11,999
And he said, “You’re gonna be a pilot.

880
01:10:12,082 --> 01:10:15,294
You’re gonna be the first woman
to pilot the space shuttle.”

881
01:10:21,175 --> 01:10:22,384
Thanks.

882
01:10:23,844 --> 01:10:26,931
Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton,

883
01:10:27,014 --> 01:10:28,974
and Administrator Goldin,

884
01:10:29,058 --> 01:10:33,062
I just can’t tell you how much of an honor
it is for me to be here today.

885
01:10:33,145 --> 01:10:37,483
I also think it’s important that
I point out that I didn’t get here alone.

886
01:10:39,235 --> 01:10:42,571
There’s so many women
throughout this century

887
01:10:42,655 --> 01:10:45,991
that have gone before me
and have taken to the skies.

888
01:10:46,492 --> 01:10:49,119
Um, from the first barnstormers,

889
01:10:49,203 --> 01:10:51,830
through the women air force...

890
01:10:51,914 --> 01:10:55,626
The women military air force
service pilots from World War II,

891
01:10:55,709 --> 01:10:58,671
the Mercury women
from back in the early 1960s

892
01:10:58,754 --> 01:11:01,966
that went through the...
All the tough medical testing.

893
01:11:02,049 --> 01:11:05,135
All these women have been
my role models and my inspiration,

894
01:11:05,219 --> 01:11:07,012
and I couldn’t be here today without them,

895
01:11:07,096 --> 01:11:09,682
and I’d like to say a special thank-you
to them.

896
01:11:09,765 --> 01:11:11,225
[applause]

897
01:11:11,308 --> 01:11:14,520
[Collins]
The Mercury 13 women are heroes of mine.

898
01:11:14,603 --> 01:11:17,022
We all had this bond
because we were all pilots.

899
01:11:18,357 --> 01:11:20,859
So I invited all of them to my launch.

900
01:11:20,943 --> 01:11:23,946
Well, when NASA found out
what was going on, who these women were,

901
01:11:24,029 --> 01:11:27,992
NASA took them off of my list
and put them on the VIP list.

902
01:11:43,841 --> 01:11:47,845
When Eileen Collins went up,
uh, I got a call,

903
01:11:47,928 --> 01:11:50,347
and she invited me to come to the launch.

904
01:11:56,520 --> 01:11:59,106
[Bob Steadman]
They had a press conference or whatever,

905
01:11:59,189 --> 01:12:04,695
where they have the astronauts
up on a stage in this large hall.

906
01:12:04,778 --> 01:12:05,946
[crowd cheering]

907
01:12:06,030 --> 01:12:09,867
They had Eileen take the microphone.

908
01:12:10,868 --> 01:12:12,911
Before she did anything else, she said,

909
01:12:12,995 --> 01:12:16,290
“I would like to recognize
the Mercury 13.”

910
01:12:18,834 --> 01:12:22,129
And she pointed to them.
She said, “Would you please stand up?”

911
01:12:22,212 --> 01:12:24,256
And then she read the names.

912
01:12:26,050 --> 01:12:27,676
And then she said,

913
01:12:27,760 --> 01:12:31,847
“If it were not for the Mercury 13,
I would not be here today.”

914
01:12:38,479 --> 01:12:43,400
They were very gracious and outgoing
to us, and could not have been nicer.

915
01:12:43,484 --> 01:12:46,362
But I will never forget that,
when all those astronauts

916
01:12:46,445 --> 01:12:48,364
stood up and clapped for us.

917
01:12:48,906 --> 01:12:51,784
[cheering, applause]

918
01:12:54,244 --> 01:12:57,623
[woman] We have booster ignition
and liftoff of Columbia,

919
01:12:57,706 --> 01:13:00,918
reaching new heights for women
and X-ray astronomy.

920
01:13:01,418 --> 01:13:03,504
[man, indistinct]

921
01:13:03,587 --> 01:13:07,257
[Collins] This is Columbia. In the roll,
we’ve got a fuel cell… number one.

922
01:13:07,758 --> 01:13:10,010
[man] Roger roll, Columbia.
We’re looking at it.

923
01:13:11,470 --> 01:13:15,265
And so that had a lot of meaning for us,
to get to know Eileen,

924
01:13:15,349 --> 01:13:18,394
and especially to go watch her
head out into the sky.

925
01:13:21,105 --> 01:13:23,899
Just love it, thinking,
“She’s in the driver’s seat.

926
01:13:25,025 --> 01:13:27,861
That woman is in the driver’s seat.”

927
01:13:32,950 --> 01:13:37,538
[Ratley] We felt redeemed,
like our mission had not been in vain.

928
01:13:38,539 --> 01:13:42,459
We started people thinking that,
“Yes, women can do this.”

929
01:13:42,543 --> 01:13:46,213
[Collins] And, Houston, what you’re seeing
is the actual moment of deploy there,

930
01:13:46,296 --> 01:13:50,300
when we take the switch to deploy,
and it’s so quiet...

931
01:13:50,384 --> 01:13:53,470
[Collins] When I talk about the future
of space exploration,

932
01:13:53,554 --> 01:13:56,515
one of the things
I tell young people nowadays is,

933
01:13:57,015 --> 01:13:59,852
“Of the 12 people that walked on the moon,
they were all men.

934
01:13:59,935 --> 01:14:03,188
But that was a function of the culture
that we had in the world

935
01:14:03,272 --> 01:14:04,940
back in the 1960s.

936
01:14:05,315 --> 01:14:08,235
You can be the first woman
to walk on the moon

937
01:14:08,318 --> 01:14:12,030
if you wanna be an astronaut.”
That’s the message I tell young people.

938
01:14:12,114 --> 01:14:15,117
Maybe the first person to walk on Mars
will be a woman.

939
01:14:19,663 --> 01:14:22,458
[Funk]
We got Eileen. We got all the girls.

940
01:14:22,541 --> 01:14:25,752
A lot of ’em are engineers.
Some are pilots.

941
01:14:28,505 --> 01:14:31,592
This is what I speak
to the youngsters today:

942
01:14:32,593 --> 01:14:36,054
Get into the STEM program.
Get your engineering degree.

943
01:14:36,555 --> 01:14:37,764
Go with NASA.

944
01:14:38,932 --> 01:14:42,436
And get yourself into space.
Get yourself into flying.

945
01:14:42,519 --> 01:14:45,439
Be an airline pilot.
Be a flight instructor.

946
01:14:46,106 --> 01:14:49,568
If that’s what you wanna be, do it.
’Cause that’s what I love.