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The Woman Who Should Have Been the First Female Astronaut
StartsWithABang writes We like to think of the Mercury 7 — the very first group of NASA astronauts — as the "best of the best," having been chosen from a pool of over 500 of the top military test pilots after three rounds of intense physical and mental tests. Yet when women were allowed to take the same tests, one of them clearly distinguished herself, outperforming practically all of the men. If NASA had really believed in merit, Jerrie Cobb would have been the first female in space, even before Valentina Tereshkova, more than 50 years ago. She still deserves to go.
Consisting of a handful of sentences written in 20 point font that failed to support its facts nor conditional, inflammatory conclusion. It is a troll article, like so many from that site.
The point made may be true, but why should a reader spend more time researching the article's sources than the writer themselves did to find the truth?
NASA did NOT test that group of women, and NOT to the same standards as the original astronauts. The ladies in question were sharp, physically fit, and had pilot's licenses BUT that's nearly the extent of their resume' overlap with the Mercury 7. Every few years some self-styled feminist guy or some ladies' magazine or website pretends nobody knows about ms. Cobb and her obviously unfairly overlooked sisters and then treats a generally ignorant public to tails of these superwomen being better than the men NASA chose but being overlooked because the nation was run by a bunch of "male chauvenist pigs". This is a re-writing of history by people who certainly know better but have outed themselves as unreliable sources of unbiased historical facts.
Jerrie and her fellow would-be lady astronauts were on an "equal rights" political campaign. They set out to prove on their own that they should be allowed into the program and had they been a bunch of men with the EXACT SAME records nobody would have given them the time of day. Instead, over the years, they have been embraced as pioneers for women's rights and become celebrity causes. Government officials, always alert to politics and the need to have support from activists, have given them awards and lots of free complements in speeches (but notably NEVER slots on the astronaut corps, nor even guest roles as shuttle payloads like a couple of members of congress - Senator Garn and Senator Nelson should ring some bells...).
NASA required all the original astronauts to have engineering degress and military flight experience in high-preformance jets (particularly choosing test pilots); this was not arbitrary - they wanted people with a PROVEN record of self control, proven affinity for understanding engineering, and a proven ability to remain calm and observant and carry out technical procedures while facing death. Neither Jerrie nor her fallow would-be lady astronauts fit the bill (just as most male aviators in the US also did not fit). Indeed, had the scope of astro candidates been expanded it still would not have included these women because there were plenty of other male miitary test pilots available with far better qualifications. When you have plenty of candidates who fit your requirements already, you do NOT add-in another set of unknowns and another set of hassles (like the need to deal with male AND female sanitary requirements, the need for a wider variety of spacesuit design features, etc) without some really good justifications. NASA accomodated women much later when it was appropriate - in the shuttle era. Had NASA in the late 1950s had a huge pool of qualified female test pilots and no qualified males, they would have gone with women and added men later.
Snopes isn't so sure. "We haven't yet found a verified news report of a drug testee whose cheating was exposed when urinalysis revealed him to be pregnant. (Pregnancy tests aren't a standard part of the drug screening process.)"