Mercury 13 Page #3

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And in certain areas women have a lot

to offer, and other areas, men do.

I think that we ought to use both.

Jerrie and I were from Oklahoma.

I was at Fort Sill.

She called and said,

Do you want to be an astronaut?

I said," Absolutely."

I knew Wally.

And Wally took me aside one time

when we were having a competition,

and she said," Im in a secret program."

Its an astronaut program,

and its very secret.

And I thought," That sounds like fun.

I think I want to get involved in that."

So heres my letter

to Dr. Lovelace saying,

Im physically fit and Im a pilot,

and Id like to participate

in your tests.

And heres his letter back.

And he encloses a card

which outlines the qualifications

of the women astronauts.

First thing they ask you is,

What are your total flying hours?

I can tell em that.

Then they wanna know your total jet hours,

your aircraft flown hours in each:

balloon flights, parachute jumps,

hours flown over 20,000 feet,

hours flown over 30,000 feet,

hours flown over 40,000 feet,

low-pressure chamber indoctrination,

explosive decompression experience,

partial pressure suit experience.

I could answer number one.

Yeah. None of us had any qualification.

She was an engineer.

We were subjects to be tested.

B was on that list.

This was something

that fit so much what she was.

I mean, she was

one of the finest professional pilots

in the country, bar none, men or women.

They contacted me. I...

And I guess they knew I was flying,

and so they talked to me about it.

I was on a tour of Europe, and there were,

kind of, rumors in the background

of what was going on

and how names had been asked for.

And the next thing I knew,

I got a phone call.

I went to my boss,

and I said, "Ive been invited

to go take an astronaut physical exam."

My boss said, We cannot spare you.

So I quit my job

to go take this... these tests.

I was the youngest.

Second one to go through after Jerrie,

maybe the third, in February of 61.

There were three phases

of astronaut testing.

Phase one was at Lovelace Clinic

in Albuquerque.

My parents drove me there

and had to sign me in.

We went through either singly or in pairs.

And I went through with Janey Hart,

who was a marvelous person.

Janey Hart, you know,

you werent supposed to have children,

and Janey Hart had eight.

They were so curious about her

that they invited her in.

So she and I went through it together.

We were the last two to go together.

It took five days.

And they were quite incredible,

because they didnt really know

what to think our bodies would do

in the outer atmospheres,

or how we were going to react.

The testing was arduous.

It was thorough and long hours.

It was a little bit more thorough

than most physical examinations.

Youd run from one test to the next test.

We had pulmonary function tests

Some of em were not... not, uh,

real friendly to the body.

total body determination tests

- Some of em were kind of exotic.

- Every tooth was taken, pictures.

Some of em were kind of strange.

Every bone in my body had an X-ray.

They x-rayed and x-rayed and x-rayed.

They gave me two cups,

and one said Urine and one said Stool.

I was having fun.

I just kinda laughed at some of the stuff.

I said," I dont know what 'stool' is."

A stool, to me,

is when I was sitting on a stool

milking cows in Taos.

I dont know what you mean.

Oh. A stool is

when you go to the bathroom.

I said," You dont want that, do you?"

Ill tell you very confidentially,

dont tell anybody this,

we had an enema every morning.

I said, "Wow."

There were some really oddball things

like that.

They inject water,

ten-degree water into my ears,

and thats when your body

just does not function.

You have no control over your body.

Oh, yeah. I remember that. Yeah.

I didnt like it, but I did it.

What they were doing to those gals

was just ugly.

Really none of the tests

stood out that much.

Shortly after I left, Jacqueline Cochran

was coming in for an interview too.

And she had taken some tests,

and he was going to give her

the results of the tests, he told me.

And I believe he told me,

Shes not gonna be happy with this.

So she found that she wasnt gonna be able

to be a part of the program.

I think that was kind of a downer for her.

She was too old, I think, at that point,

to even be considered for spaceflight.

Those arent the issues to her.

Would you like to be

a Mercury astronaut, or astronautte?

I would like very, very much to be.

I dont think age has a thing to do with

it as long as youre healthy and vigorous,

and Im all of that. After I got through

yesterday, you know what I did?

- No, what?

- Went out and played 18 holes of golf,

and then cooked dinner.

The very last day,

they told me I had passed.

And that meant a great deal to me.

It was very nice

when some of the doctors said

that I had done very well on these tests.

Remarkably, you know,

after having nine full pregnancies,

she just had a body that wouldnt quit.

It was great.

And of the 23ish girls who were taken,

only 13 passed.

Later, when B sat down

with Randy Lovelace,

he was absolutely thrilled

at what the women so far had done.

I was following it. Of course I was

following what the Russians were doing.

When Yuri Gagarin went up,

you know,

just a phenomenal thing to happen.

That was a huge event.

All of us were conscious of it.

All of us were conscious

of the competition with Russia,

the Soviet Union, at the same time.

So there was... there was the space race

as well as

just the scientific adventure hook.

My memories are,

Why cant the Americans do it?

This was the feeling at the time.

The Russians were basically crowing,

and they were clearly in advance

of our space program.

Our Mercury men were being prepared,

basically, to compete.

Three two one zero.

Liftoff.

All right, now.

Liftoff, and the clock has started.

Yes, sir. Reading you loud and clear.

This is Freedom 7 . The fuel is go.

They were strapped into a seat

and sent up there and brought back down.

And, Whoopee, here I am.

I made it, but I didnt fly it.

Phase two was in Oklahoma City,

and I stayed at Jerries house.

And that was the psychological tests.

I heard about a test where

you were submerged in a tank of water and,

for a long period of time,

lost all the normal five senses.

That was a very interesting experiment

where they isolate you

in a tank of warm water.

The tank was in a great big room.

They had already

put the earplugs in my ears.

And I had just enough foam rubber

to go under the small of my back,

and I was to lay on the water

as long as possible.

So I get in the water, and I get

comfortable, and I spread-eagle out.

And I thought,

"Theres something wrong here."

I splashed the water,

couldnt feel it.

Splashed my face, couldnt feel any water.

Couldnt feel anything.

She found it interesting

that in that sensory deprivation chamber,

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