Mercury 13 Page #6

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and everything that she said in that

hearing would have been very different.

After that, Vice President Johnson

canceled the program.

The women were doing too well.

There is a classic letter

signed by Lyndon Johnson.

And he is the one that said,

This program must stop now,

and signed it.

His words were, Stop this now.

Lyndon Johnson supposedly,

supposedly, said,

well, you know,

women have their periods.

I wish you could put that on a tampon box,

that you can fly,

you can fly if youre having your period.

It was so typical, in that day and age,

of men and how they judged women.

There were any number of ways

to keep them from achieving

what they wanted to achieve.

I think it had as much to do

with the boys not wanting

to have the light taken away from them,

because they were the heroes of our time.

One beautiful woman as an astronaut

would have just dominated the news

to the extent that

the other seven would feel...

What has gone wrong,

and wheres my money?

If the gentlemen who denied the Mercury 13

were comfortable in their skin,

they would have behaved differently.

But underneath it all,

its just some little boy whos afraid.

We all know why it didnt happen.

And that goes back to this issue of

uh, just prejudice,

good old-fashioned prejudice.

- Of course they were prejudiced.

- It was a good old boy network.

And there was no such thing

as a good old girl network.

I was disappointed,

cause I knew I did it well, and...

But they didnt like that, or they didnt

like any of the people doing it.

So that was the end of that one.

Years, years later,

Jackie admitted to me she was embarrassed,

she was regretful

and somewhat ashamed, and told me so.

In order to beat the Russians to the moon,

we first have to catch up with them.

When do you think this might happen,

and what do you expect

their next space mission to be?

A little difficult to pinpoint

where we stand in a race

when the opposition does everything

under cloak-and-dagger type secrecy,

where we dont know what theyre doing.

You dont know what youre racing against.

You dont have any idea, their mission?

Supposed to be one quite soon.

None at all. I have no secret information

other than what I read in the newspapers.

Valentina,

although she was Russian and we wished

the first one would have been American,

she still helped the program.

It was a bold move

to climb into one of those vehicles

and shoot up into space

and then see what happens next.

Valentina was a sport parachutist.

We would rather have seen

a pilot selected.

But the fact that they had a woman

going into space,

that was a breakthrough,

and, uh, we-we admired her very much.

It was a huge

propaganda victory for the Russians again.

B just sat there and thought

how stupid these men were.

The Russians have put up

a woman cosmonaut.

Is there any room in our space programs

for a woman astronaut,

in your opinion, sir?

Well, we could have used a woman on the...

on the second... actually, the second

orbital Mercury-Atlas that we had.

We could have put a woman up,

the same type of woman,

and flown her instead of the chimpanzee.

Now...

Mother was really angry.

Really angry. Yeah.

Yes, she was.

And stayed that way, actually.

This termination of this program

began to move her in the direction

of being radicalized.

Mother was one of the very first

founding members of NOW,

the National Organization of Women.

Shed been invited

as a result of the hearings.

She hammered on womens rights

day and night,

week after week, month after month,

almost, um, just to the point of,

Here she goes again.

Thats one small step for a woman

one giant leap for womankind.

Youve only got 15 minutes before we

want you driving back to the LEM, over.

Okay.

Well get to work.

Sarah, we need to sample here.

Going to the moon

was one of those points in the 60s

where there was something

we could all share with pride.

Its a great ride.

Steerings a little tricky though.

But imagine how much more telling

and significant it would have been

to have a woman step onto the moon.

It was

a very seriously missed opportunity.

This really could have

changed lives hugely.

Not just in terms of, you know,

little girls getting engineering degrees,

but moving into positions of real power

implementing practices and policies

that might have represented

that humanitarian component of woman,

you know,

as opposed to the bellicose boys.

It would have had an amazing,

positive impact

empowering women in general,

and overcoming this notion

that women cannot do

what men do in this country.

I would have liked

to have walked on the moon.

I would have loved to have put the

American flag into the crust of the moon

and saluted it

pick up a few rocks, and boy,

those rocks are worth a lot today

and do the assignments

that had to be done.

I wouldve loved it.

I couldve walked on it. I couldve

kicked it out. I couldve made dust.

Because I know the guys did.

I couldve done anything they did.

I grew up in Elmira, New York,

and the interesting thing about Elmira is

its the location

of the National Soaring Museum.

So when I was a child,

Id watch the gliders take off and land.

And I wondered,

What would it be like if I was up there?

So I started thinking as a child

that maybe I could fly someday.

As I got older,

I decided I wanted to be an astronaut.

But I dont remember thinking,

I cant do this because Im not a man.

It was more like,

Well, Im going to be an astronaut,

and Ill just be a woman astronaut.

The air force opened flight training

to women in 1976.

I was in the first class of women pilots

in the air force

that went right out of college.

And we were in a test program.

So we just knew if we had failed,

that then women wouldnt continue to fly.

So I tried very, very hard.

I wasnt gonna date anybody.

I wasnt gonna have a crazy social life.

Because it was so important to me

to be the best pilot I could be.

I loved the air force.

Absolutely loved it.

But I never told anyone

I wanted to be an astronaut

because I knew they were gonna tell me

I couldnt do it.

I was out flying.

I came back to the squadron

and there was a yellow note

hanging on the bulletin board.

And it said:
"Call NASA".

I go, This is it.

Theyre gonna tell me if Im in or out.

John Young answered the phone.

He was an astronaut who walked

on the moon during the Apollo program.

The first thing he said to me was,

"Do you still want to be an astronaut?"

I said," Uh"

yes.

So he went through this whole long

narrative about what I was gonna do

at Johnson Space Center.

He said," Do you have any questions?"

I said, "Yes. Am I gonna be a pilot

or a mission specialist?"

And he said, "Youre gonna be a pilot."

Youre gonna be the first woman

to pilot the space shuttle.

Thanks.

Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton,

and Administrator Goldin,

I just cant tell you how much of an honor

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