{"id":290088,"date":"2021-07-02T23:31:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T20:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-jeff-bezos-chose-this-female-astronaut-from-nasas-mercury-13\/"},"modified":"2021-07-02T23:31:31","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T20:31:31","slug":"why-jeff-bezos-chose-this-female-astronaut-from-nasas-mercury-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-jeff-bezos-chose-this-female-astronaut-from-nasas-mercury-13\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why Jeff Bezos chose this female astronaut from NASA’s Mercury 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Why Jeff Bezos chose this female astronaut from NASA’s Mercury 13<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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When Wally Funk launches into space later this month aboard Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin, she will, at 82, be the oldest astronaut ever.<\/p>\n

But she was nearly the youngest.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico native was 22 when she joined the Mercury 13 program, a group of intrepid women who, back in 1961, underwent the same training as the Mercury 7, NASA\u2019s all-male crew of original astronauts.<\/p>\n

The women were never allowed to go into space, and hardly written about. It was a pioneering program lost to history.<\/p>\n

Sue Nelson, a UK science<\/a> writer, broadcaster and author of the 2019 book, \u201cWally Funk\u2019s Race for Space: The Extraordinary Story of a Female Aviation Pioneer\u201d<\/a> spoke with Funk after her trip<\/a> plans were made public this week by Bezos. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018I\u2019ve waited a lifetime, honey,\u2019 \u201d Nelson told The Post, adding that Funk will be representing Mercury 13 when she heads into space. \u201cShe told me, \u2018I am going up for all of them.\u2019 She knows the significance.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Mercury 13 program lasted a year and was privately funded.<\/p>\n

It was started by Dr. William Randolph Lovelace, who designed NASA\u2019s strenuous examinations. He invited pilot Jerrie Cobbe to undergo the same tests as the males and she passed. In the next year, another 12 women would successfully complete the training \u2014 sometimes besting the men.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe general<\/a> consensus was that it was a physician\u2019s curiosity of seeing whether women could do the same,\u201d said Nelson. <\/p>\n

They were subjected to the same physically punishing tests, including swallowing a rubber tube to test stomach acid and having ice water squirted into their ears to induce vertigo and measure their recovery time. Nelson said the latter made many physically ill.<\/p>\n

As part of psychological trials, the aspiring space explorers were isolated and put into a darkened room, which led some to hallucinate. Nelson said Funk lasted 10 and a half hours, more than any other person, male or female.<\/p>\n

In Bezos\u2019 announcement, Funk acknowledged her prowess in the battle of the sexes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the \u201960s, I was in the Mercury 13 program,\u201d Funk said. \u201cThey asked me, \u2018Do you want to be an astronaut?\u2019 I said \u2018Yes.\u2019 They told me that I had done better and completed the work faster than any of the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson said that unlike the men who trained together as a group, the females did so in pairs. But Funk did hers solo after the other woman assigned to undergo testing with her dropped out on the first day.<\/p>\n

\"Members
Wally Funk (second from left, in 1995) was a member of the Mercury 13 program, a group that sought to recruit women astronauts in the 1960s.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the women, including Funk, were invited to Pensacola, Florida, for further training which never came to fruition.<\/p>\n

NASA torpedoed any hopes of the women launching into space, requiring candidates to be graduates of military jet test pilot programs. It was an insurmountable obstacle for the women considering no military branch allowed female pilots at the time. <\/p>\n

Mercury 13 then shut down. <\/p>\n

Cobbe tried to restart the program, app<\/a>earing before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics\u2019 hearing on sex discrimination in 1962.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were women on the Mayflower and on the first wagon trains west, working alongside the men to forge new trails to new vistas. We ask that opportunity in the pioneering of space,\u201d said Cobbe to no avail.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of the Americans\u2019 hesitancy at the time, the Russians got there first with Valentina Tereshkova,\u201d said Nelson.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until 1983 that Sally Ride broke the barrier for American female astronauts.<\/p>\n

In 1995, New York native Eileen Collins helmed Discovery, becoming the first female shuttle pilot and invited the 13 trailblazers to watch the launch. <\/p>\n

In recognition of female aviators who came before her, Collins packed a scarf once worn by Amelia Earhart and keepsakes from the Mercury 13 ladies.<\/p>\n

Nelson said Funk gave Collins her pin from the Ninety Nines, the international organization for female pilots.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little part of her already went up,\u201d said Nelson. All of the women have passed away except Funk and Gene Nora Jessen, and Nelson is thrilled their story is being told once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have always been women figures in space history whether they\u2019ve been mathematicians or engineers. They were in LIFE magazine,\u201d said Nelson of the Mercury 13 women, adding, \u201cThey did get publicity but their history keeps getting forgotten.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Why Jeff Bezos chose this female astronaut from NASA’s Mercury 13” When Wally Funk launches into space later this month aboard Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin, she will, at 82, be the oldest astronaut ever. But she was nearly the youngest. The New Mexico native was 22 when she joined the Mercury 13 program, a group…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/07\/wally-funk-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[110930,71631,5026],"class_list":["post-290088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-7-2-21","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-nasa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}