Although the Mercury 13 space project was unceremoniously terminated, many of the women went on to extraordinary achievements in other fields. On June 16, 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.

Mercury 13 was the nickname of 13 daring American female pilots, formally known as the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLAT), each one of whom dreamt of becoming the world’s first woman in space. In 1960, they were rigorously tested for their fitness for spaceflight under a private programme financed by the worldrenowned aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran.

The reasons were practical. Women are lighter than men and require less fuel for the blast-off into space, a vital factor at the dawn of the space age. They are less prone to heart attacks and are better able to cope with claustrophobic isolation in space. However, Mercury 13, not part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut programme, never ventured into space.

In 1959, independent medical researcher William Randolph Lovelace II who helped develop selection tests for NASA’s male astronauts and the US Air Force Brigadier General Donald Flickinger wondered how women might endure spaceflight. The Soviet Union had launched the world’s first man-made satellite Sputnik-1 in October 1957 and the US followed suit with Explorer-1 in January 1958. It was only a question of time before human spaceflight would become a reality. And General Flickinger knew that America had to hurry if it wished to launch a woman into space before the Soviets. With impressive credentials, Jerrie Cobb was chosen to be the first American woman to be subjected to physiological and psychological screening tests as for male astronauts selected in April 1959 for Project Mercury. Since no human being had yet flown in space when these tests were designed, extreme fitness standard was a prerequisite.

Several highly-accomplished commercial pilots including famous personalities like Jerrie Cobb and Wally Funk applied. The oldest candidate, Jane Hart, wife of a US Senator, was a 41-year-old mother of eight, while the youngest, Wally Funk, was just 23. Finally, 13 of the women passed the same tests as the first group of the US male astronauts. A few of the women underwent additional Phase-II trials, comprising an isolation tank test and psychological evaluation. Only Jerrie Cobb passed the Phase-III checks which were advanced aero medical examinations using military equipment and jet aircraft. Some others were getting ready to follow when a telegram was received, abruptly cancelling all further tests. Apparently, since NASA wasn’t willing to sponsor the tests, the US Navy decided to discontinue the use of its facilities for a project that was not official. Urgent appeals even to the US President to reconsider the matter came to naught. That is how the dreams of Mercury 13 were rudely shattered.

Were they victims of NASA’s gender bias? In all fairness it must be said that the programme was only a private effort sponsored by an independent consultant to NASA on astronaut selection. NASA’s QRs clearly mentioned that all astronauts should be graduates of military jet test pilot programmes and should hold an engineering degree. Perhaps it was reasonable to prefer military personnel in view of the military origins of the space programme, the easy availability of hundreds of experienced test pilots, the criticality of the space race and the high cost of failure. In 1960, 75 per cent of American women did not work outside the home. Forget testing military jets, female pilots could not even join the US military. Therefore, it would be more apt to conclude that the Mercury 13 pilots were victims of the prevailing conservative attitude in the society towards women.