THE WOMEN OF NASA YOU NEVER KNEW!

Pictured above: Gene Nora Jensen, "Jerrie" Cobb, Myrtle Cagle, "Jerri" Truhill, Bernice Stedman, "Wally" Funk, and Sarah Ratley of NASA's original "Mercury 13".

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Today, 78-year old Geraldyn "Jerrie" Sloan Truhill and 12 other female pilots will receive their Honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Wisconsin--Oshkosh. Believe it or not, 47 years ago these women were dubbed "The Mercury 13" in NASA's then-fledgling space program from 1960-1962. Jerrie Cobb passed all three phases of her physical and mental endurance tests. Each test was extremely rigorous. The remaining ladies passed two phases of the testing before President Johnson sadly shut down the experimental program. Two of the women--Marion Dietrich and Jean Hixon are now deceased, and three others are too ill to attend or have other plans and won't be attending the graduation ceremonies. The original 13 include: Jerrie Cobb, Bernice Steadman, Janey Hart, Jerri Truhill, Rhea Woltman, Sarah Ratley, Jan and Marion Dietrich, Myrtle Cagle, Irene Leverton, Gene Nora Jessen, Jean Hixson, and Wally Funk. Though banned from piloting military jets of the era, many of the women actually racked up more flight hours than the male astronauts! At last count in 2005, 36 of the 154 Astronauts at NASA were women. As far back as 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. However, the first American woman to enter space, Sally Ride, did not launch until 1983. So, I did some checking out of curiosity and found out the following.

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Of the 141,900 commercial airline pilots plying the skies today, 5,008 are women. United Airlines was the first topromote a woman to the rank of Captain. Regarding NASA, however, "If you'd asked us 20 years ago, we would have expected there would be more women in the profession by now", says Sally Ride. Eileen Collins, who became the first woman to serve as Commander of a Space Shuttle in 1999 shares the same disappointment. Still, Jerri Truhill, one of the Mercury 13 pilots who will receive her Honorary Degree today stated, "Isn't that neat? We're not used to that. We're just used to rejection."

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What I wanted to know is what factor is responsible for the fewer numbers of female Astronauts, given that the sexist attitudes of 47 years ago is gone? From what I uncovered, studies show that high school girls are equal to boys in the number of math and science classes each sign up to take. However, the fallout seems to enter the picture for females in their college years where computer engineering, computer science and electrical engineering required of NASA (but not for commercial airline pilots) are not chosen as majors. Eileen Collins says, "I want young women to know that you can get married and have children and be a pilot and engineer". Eileen should know. She is 50 and married with two children. Hopefully, the Mercury 13 women who range in ages from 67 to 85 will serve as positive role models for future female Astronauts. Lastly...

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There is a push underway for Jerrie Cobb to follow the path of original Mercury Astronaut-tuned Senator John Glenn to train and become a crew member of a future Space Shuttle Mission. I really hope this happens! Jerrie attended all three launches of Eileen Collin's missions and met with former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. Mr. Goldin agreed during this meeting that Jerrie would be the perfect candidate to go into space for geriatric and aging studies, as John Glenn had done. Glenn's results were released by the National Institute of Health. I for one agree that Mr. Goldin should make good on his suggestion to allow Jerrie to fly as an older and experienced female to further these studies. This weekend, I salute each of these fantastic women of Courage!