When NASA recruited the first American astronauts in 1959, it was strictly “men only.” Women weren’t specifically banned, but the Mercury Seven all had to have experience as military test pilots, and those jobs were only open to men. But some aerospace medicine experts believed that women would be better suited as astronauts. On average, women are lighter, shorter, and consume less food and oxygen. Without official NASA approval, the “Woman in Space Program” was secretly created to see if women had the right stuff. By the early 1960s, 13 women had successfully completed the same grueling physical tests as NASA’s male candidates, in hopes of becoming the country’s first female astronauts.
They were promised the Moon:
Experienced female pilot Jerrie Cobb was the first of the so-called “Mercury 13” to be tested. Cobb passed all three phases of the screening program, and surpassed the male astronauts on some tests.
To see if Cobb’s results could be replicated, Dr. William “Randy” Lovelace recruited 12 other female pilots. Among the candidates were 21-year-old flight instructor Wally Funk and 39-year-old Janey Hart, a mother of eight and wife of U.S. Senator Philip Hart.
The initiative was canceled when the U.S. Navy learned that Lovelace’s testing program was not actually sponsored by NASA. Cobb and Hart lobbied Vice President Lyndon Johnson to reconsider the decision, but to no avail.