Jerrie Cobb, February 1999

In 1960, Jerrie Cobb was a world record-breaking pilot and the first woman recruited for testing as an astronaut. She endured the same rigorous training the male astronauts received. Based on her performance, 24 other women were recommended to the program. Twelve of them passed, and with Jerrie, became known as the Mercury 13.

Throughout the testing, the women consistently performed as well or better than the men. They used less oxygen, had more endurance, complained less, handled isolation better, and withstood heat, pain, noise and loneliness better. Jerrie aced all the tests, including those with military jets and g-force. She logged twice as many flight hours as John Glenn, and more than 4 times more than Scott Carpenter. Her test results proved her more qualified for space flight than 98 percent of all astronauts tested. Yet it was John Glenn and not Jerrie Cobb that made the first orbit of the earth.

NASA abruptly cancelled the Mercury 13 training in 1961. The women were left with no reason for the cancellation. A year later, their case was heard in Congress and the truth was revealed. NASA required all astronauts to be official military jet test pilots, but women were banned by law from military flight duty. NASA refused to waive this requirement for Jerrie Cobb, which it could have done based on her aviation experience and test results, even thought they waived some educational requirements for John Glenn.

In 1963, a Russian was the first woman in space. That year, Jerrie moved to the Amazon and has spent the last 35 years flying relief missions to indigenous people. She has been honored by the governments of France, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. President Nixon awarded her the Harmon Trophy as the top woman pilot in the world. For her humanitarian work in the Amazon jungle, she has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She did not let NASA’s betrayal destroy her spirit, and she kept on flying.

In the wake of John Glenn’s recent shuttle flight, efforts are underway to correct this wrong, by flooding NASA with requests from Hillary Clinton, congressional representatives, members of NOW, and many other organziations and individuals.