Fly Me to the Moon? The Legacy of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees

In 1961, doctor William Randall Lovelace II invited the nation’s best female airplane pilots to his medical facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he subjected them to physical exams unlike any they had ever experienced before. The tests were intense, both physically and psychologically, and were designed to determine if these women had “the right stuff” to fly in space. Lovelace had just administered these tests to a select group of men, of whom seven were destined to be forever known as “the Mercury 7”. Might these women also pass the tests? And if so, would they fly in space, too? Now commonly known as “the Mercury 13”, this class of First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs) included twins, a senator's wife, a few mothers, and a woman who would eventually (60 years later) realize her dream – and theirs – of becoming an astronaut. Whether they knew it or not, these 13 women paved the way for future women space explorers, including the first who may soon set foot on the Moon.

Professor Nicolle Zellner is an astronomer, planetary scientist, and astrobiologist, currently at Albion College