0 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Kunjungi www.Nexiabet.com Agen Judi Online Aman dan Terpercaya 1 00:00:19,602 --> 00:00:24,566 Most harmful behavior is based in fear. 2 00:00:28,194 --> 00:00:32,157 Protecting one’s perceived position in society… 3 00:00:35,660 --> 00:00:39,581 protecting one’s territory, or one’s physical well-being. 4 00:00:43,042 --> 00:00:46,254 But progress is inevitable. 5 00:00:52,177 --> 00:00:55,388 This is Apollo Control. The situation is go for landing. 6 00:00:57,182 --> 00:00:59,517 Repeat again, we are go for landing. 7 00:01:00,435 --> 00:01:03,146 There was, at that time, a lot of prejudice. 8 00:01:04,189 --> 00:01:07,233 Women astronauts. What a ridiculous idea. 9 00:01:07,817 --> 00:01:11,404 Roger. You’re five by, Jim. We’re sailing free. 10 00:01:12,864 --> 00:01:14,824 Okay, Jim. How do you read? Over. 11 00:01:14,908 --> 00:01:17,077 I read you loud and clear. You sound beautiful. 12 00:01:17,660 --> 00:01:20,872 I think we all know why it didn’t happen. 13 00:01:21,456 --> 00:01:23,291 Okay. 300 feet. 14 00:01:24,417 --> 00:01:25,710 Fifteen down. 15 00:01:26,586 --> 00:01:27,754 Take over, Sarah. 16 00:01:28,379 --> 00:01:30,215 It was a good old boy network. 17 00:01:30,298 --> 00:01:33,176 And there was no such thing as a good old girl network. 18 00:01:34,636 --> 00:01:37,055 Okay. Fuel is at ten percent. 19 00:01:37,806 --> 00:01:42,101 I guess we did it so well, they didn’t like that. So… 20 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:44,187 Here comes the shadow. 21 00:01:44,646 --> 00:01:48,149 Perfect place over here. I see a couple of big boulders, not too bad. 22 00:01:49,025 --> 00:01:52,403 I still didn’t tell people that I wanted to be an astronaut. 23 00:01:52,487 --> 00:01:54,072 I was just gonna do it. 24 00:01:55,448 --> 00:01:57,528 You’re leveled off. Let her on down. 25 00:01:57,742 --> 00:02:01,371 Okay. Seven, six percent. Pretty fast. 26 00:02:02,413 --> 00:02:03,790 Contact. Stop! 27 00:02:06,084 --> 00:02:09,546 Someone has to start the fight to change the opinion. 28 00:02:09,921 --> 00:02:12,340 Someone has to lead the way. 29 00:02:12,799 --> 00:02:15,677 That’s one small leap for a woman… 30 00:02:18,096 --> 00:02:21,141 another giant step for mankind. 31 00:02:51,462 --> 00:02:52,755 Surprise! 32 00:02:54,465 --> 00:02:56,175 - How we doing? - Great. 33 00:02:56,259 --> 00:02:57,468 Good to see you. 34 00:02:57,552 --> 00:02:59,345 - Hi, honey. How are you? - Good. 35 00:02:59,429 --> 00:03:02,098 - Good to see you, sweetheart. - Thank you. Nice to see you. 36 00:03:03,641 --> 00:03:07,353 - What kind of airplane do you usually fly? - Usually a 172. 37 00:03:07,437 --> 00:03:10,648 Although the last time, I was flying in a Cherokee. 38 00:03:10,732 --> 00:03:15,987 So it doesn’t really matter. I’m used to a Piper from the days of my three Comanches. 39 00:03:16,070 --> 00:03:20,241 - You’re the Comanche girl. I remember. - Yeah. Low-wing Comanches. 40 00:03:20,325 --> 00:03:23,703 I’ve been very lucky, and I’ve been able to fly some Stearmans about once a month. 41 00:03:23,786 --> 00:03:24,996 - Oh, good. - That’s great. 42 00:03:25,079 --> 00:03:28,875 That’s the airplane that I owned when I was 20 years old out in California. 43 00:03:57,487 --> 00:04:00,323 I was a very, very curious kid. 44 00:04:03,409 --> 00:04:06,746 My first ride in an airplane was at nine years of age. 45 00:04:07,997 --> 00:04:12,085 And it was wonderful. The freedom, the smell of the exhaust, 46 00:04:12,168 --> 00:04:14,462 the air going over my hair. 47 00:04:17,882 --> 00:04:19,717 It was me. It was part of me. 48 00:04:20,385 --> 00:04:22,220 I had those wings on too. 49 00:04:32,647 --> 00:04:34,607 I grew up in Minnesota. 50 00:04:36,526 --> 00:04:39,320 Every day, I’d see this airplane flying overhead, 51 00:04:39,404 --> 00:04:41,656 and I thought," I could do that too." 52 00:04:43,616 --> 00:04:46,244 My parents didn’t like that idea. 53 00:04:48,496 --> 00:04:51,082 People didn’t think it was for women at all, flying. 54 00:04:51,165 --> 00:04:55,378 But I knew better, and I liked it and I did it. 55 00:05:04,387 --> 00:05:06,180 I think your first solo is, 56 00:05:06,264 --> 00:05:11,269 in all your flying experiences, you feel is your greatest accomplishment. 57 00:05:15,523 --> 00:05:19,277 It was the thrill of going up and being free up there. 58 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,155 And you’d look down and you could get a proper perspective. 59 00:05:24,407 --> 00:05:25,908 I always was very positive 60 00:05:25,992 --> 00:05:30,121 about always willing to learn something new and have a new adventure. 61 00:05:39,547 --> 00:05:42,258 There was a barnstormer coming into Flint, 62 00:05:42,341 --> 00:05:44,510 and they were advertising rides. 63 00:05:45,344 --> 00:05:50,016 B said that, from the moment she got in that plane and took off and looked down, 64 00:05:50,099 --> 00:05:54,312 she said, "This is it. This is what I’m meant for." 65 00:06:03,321 --> 00:06:06,240 This is Janey’s official wedding picture. 66 00:06:07,450 --> 00:06:09,619 My mother was a very well-off child 67 00:06:09,702 --> 00:06:15,041 who took advantage of that to pursue the dreams that she always held. 68 00:06:18,086 --> 00:06:19,837 Seventeen. You’re right. 69 00:06:20,963 --> 00:06:26,344 My first experience of flight, um, was when I was very young. 70 00:06:28,513 --> 00:06:30,056 Mother was the pilot. 71 00:06:33,226 --> 00:06:35,728 And off we go, into the sky. 72 00:06:38,064 --> 00:06:41,442 And Mother’s very delighted to just show her little girl 73 00:06:41,526 --> 00:06:43,402 this is what you could do. 74 00:06:49,075 --> 00:06:51,536 So we’re going higher and higher and higher 75 00:06:51,619 --> 00:06:53,955 and closer and closer to the clouds. 76 00:06:55,206 --> 00:06:56,666 I’m becoming a bit alarmed 77 00:06:56,749 --> 00:06:59,377 because, in my mind, these clouds are solid 78 00:06:59,460 --> 00:07:02,797 and we’re going to crash into them, and my mother is going to kill us. 79 00:07:05,007 --> 00:07:06,467 As we get closer and closer, I said, 80 00:07:06,551 --> 00:07:09,470 "Why are we going so close to the clouds? We’re gonna hit them." 81 00:07:09,554 --> 00:07:13,224 And she just... She truly laughed and said, you know, Watch this. 82 00:07:13,307 --> 00:07:16,602 And away we went, through and over the clouds. 83 00:07:18,896 --> 00:07:20,314 Quite wonderful. 84 00:07:32,827 --> 00:07:35,288 I still, as I lift off, 85 00:07:35,705 --> 00:07:39,125 very often think, Why me, God?" 86 00:07:41,002 --> 00:07:43,004 "Why did I get to do this? 87 00:07:44,630 --> 00:07:46,632 I don’t think I needed a lot of encouragement. 88 00:07:46,716 --> 00:07:50,094 I was raring to go. I just, I really loved flying. 89 00:07:57,685 --> 00:08:00,021 There was always a certain amount of prejudice 90 00:08:00,104 --> 00:08:02,648 about women getting into the men’s fields. 91 00:08:06,319 --> 00:08:10,823 But there were stories of women making breakthroughs in aviation. 92 00:08:12,033 --> 00:08:13,743 So I knew it was possible. 93 00:08:17,330 --> 00:08:21,167 She’s out to break the women’s speed record: Jacqueline Cochran. 94 00:08:21,250 --> 00:08:25,505 Takeoff at Detroit for the girl who now ranks as first lady of the sky. 95 00:08:25,588 --> 00:08:27,590 Women are progressing rapidly. 96 00:08:31,177 --> 00:08:33,846 The women’s record, made by a ladybird of France, 97 00:08:33,930 --> 00:08:36,599 was 276 miles an hour. 98 00:08:36,682 --> 00:08:40,144 Jacqueline flies 17 miles an hour faster than that. 99 00:08:44,398 --> 00:08:47,193 She lands, and I wonder how she looks 100 00:08:47,276 --> 00:08:51,072 after flying more than 293 miles an hour. 101 00:08:51,155 --> 00:08:53,866 That’s fast enough to disarrange one’s hair. 102 00:08:53,950 --> 00:08:54,992 Sure enough… 103 00:09:00,831 --> 00:09:05,044 No, I never met Jackie Cochran. But I can tell you a Jackie Cochran story. 104 00:09:07,255 --> 00:09:09,423 I was flying into Cincinnati, 105 00:09:10,091 --> 00:09:12,343 and the tower gave me landing instructions. 106 00:09:12,426 --> 00:09:15,263 And then I heard a woman’s voice. 107 00:09:15,346 --> 00:09:17,557 She was flying a Lockheed Lodestar. 108 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:23,104 And I thought, "My word, what female pilot flies that big old Lockheed?" 109 00:09:24,772 --> 00:09:26,857 The tower called her, and they said, 110 00:09:26,941 --> 00:09:29,569 Lockheed, you are lined up on the wrong runway. 111 00:09:30,194 --> 00:09:31,362 And she said, 112 00:09:31,988 --> 00:09:35,783 "I’ll land on any goddamn runway I please." 113 00:09:35,866 --> 00:09:37,410 And of course I thought, 114 00:09:37,493 --> 00:09:40,204 "Wow, I didn’t know you could say that on the radio." 115 00:09:47,128 --> 00:09:50,965 We didn’t really need a reason to invite Jacqueline Cochran to the program. 116 00:09:51,382 --> 00:09:54,260 Our guest is probably the most distinguished woman pilot 117 00:09:54,343 --> 00:09:55,845 in the world today. 118 00:09:56,679 --> 00:10:01,058 It seems that you soloed at Roosevelt Field back in 1932. 119 00:10:01,142 --> 00:10:04,353 - That is correct. And... - Came in for a dead-stick landing. 120 00:10:04,437 --> 00:10:08,232 Right. And it was 48 hours after I’d seen my first airplane on the ground. 121 00:10:08,316 --> 00:10:10,544 How many hours of instruction had you had when you... 122 00:10:10,568 --> 00:10:12,528 Five hours and five minutes. 123 00:10:13,029 --> 00:10:16,824 But you’ve also done very well in the cosmetics business. 124 00:10:16,907 --> 00:10:18,326 I did very well. 125 00:10:18,409 --> 00:10:20,887 ’Course it helped to be married to a millionaire, you admit that? 126 00:10:20,911 --> 00:10:23,122 I was doing pretty well before I got married. 127 00:10:25,041 --> 00:10:28,919 Jacqueline Cochran was an extraordinary gal. 128 00:10:29,003 --> 00:10:32,923 She, uh... She was raised in poverty in the South. 129 00:10:33,007 --> 00:10:35,593 She had formed her own company. 130 00:10:35,676 --> 00:10:37,678 She met Floyd Odlum, who was, 131 00:10:37,762 --> 00:10:42,475 prior to the war, he was the highest-paid CEO in the United States. 132 00:10:43,601 --> 00:10:47,521 Jackie was very much of an individualist. 133 00:10:47,605 --> 00:10:50,399 First woman to do this, first woman to do that. 134 00:10:50,483 --> 00:10:53,569 And Jackie wanted to be a trailblazer. 135 00:10:53,653 --> 00:10:56,030 Women with wings. 136 00:10:56,113 --> 00:10:58,324 At Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, 137 00:10:58,407 --> 00:11:01,577 famous flyer Jacqueline Cochran gives her ferry pilot students 138 00:11:01,661 --> 00:11:03,371 a last-minute inspection. 139 00:11:03,454 --> 00:11:06,707 Then it’s off by plane for graduation ceremonies. 140 00:11:10,628 --> 00:11:13,214 Good-bye, Daughter. I’m working for the army now. 141 00:11:14,215 --> 00:11:18,260 Jackie Cochran headed up the WASP program during World War II, 142 00:11:19,136 --> 00:11:22,556 the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, who flew all the airplanes. 143 00:11:23,724 --> 00:11:25,935 That was the first time that happened. 144 00:11:26,018 --> 00:11:28,687 They flew all the military airplanes, but they didn’t go to war. 145 00:11:32,525 --> 00:11:36,612 What they did is that they provided ferrying capability. 146 00:11:37,154 --> 00:11:39,865 They would pick up the aircraft from the factories 147 00:11:39,949 --> 00:11:43,327 and fly them to a point where they would be turned over. 148 00:11:46,372 --> 00:11:48,165 And these women flew these planes 149 00:11:48,249 --> 00:11:51,544 with the same training, or less, that the men had, 150 00:11:51,627 --> 00:11:53,879 and they had the same safety record. 151 00:11:53,963 --> 00:11:56,048 So they proved they could fly those aircraft. 152 00:11:56,924 --> 00:12:00,261 Nobody should ever tell a WASP that flying’s not a woman’s job. 153 00:12:00,344 --> 00:12:02,596 They wouldn’t believe it any more than if it were said 154 00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:08,269 a girl can’t be a good flyer and a woman, a woman at the same time. 155 00:12:12,148 --> 00:12:14,316 After the war, they didn’t want to give that up. 156 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:16,819 They wouldn’t give up their independence. 157 00:12:17,778 --> 00:12:20,406 A lot of ’em stayed in aviation. 158 00:12:20,489 --> 00:12:23,534 And a lot of ’em didn’t want to go back to the kitchen. 159 00:12:23,617 --> 00:12:25,494 They wanted their freedom again. 160 00:12:36,046 --> 00:12:39,592 And these WASPs really were great mentors. 161 00:12:41,218 --> 00:12:45,014 They organized these air races called the Powder Puff Derby. 162 00:12:49,226 --> 00:12:51,771 The first one I flew in was ’52. 163 00:12:53,105 --> 00:12:55,441 You know, when you’re 18, you don’t have fear, 164 00:12:55,524 --> 00:12:58,277 and you don’t think of it as being brave. 165 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:01,280 You think of adventures and having fun. 166 00:13:01,363 --> 00:13:04,950 Because 18-year-olds think nothing will ever happen to ’em. 167 00:13:18,047 --> 00:13:21,509 You know, Powder Puff Derby has a great ring to it. 168 00:13:21,926 --> 00:13:24,762 And it was always great to say, Yeah, I flew the Powder Puff Derby. 169 00:13:27,097 --> 00:13:30,351 When you’re at the takeoff line and the flag drops, 170 00:13:30,434 --> 00:13:33,145 you put the power to it, and you take off, 171 00:13:33,521 --> 00:13:36,982 and I stayed very close to the runway to get my speed up. 172 00:13:41,237 --> 00:13:45,407 The women that you meet who are flying in those air races are wonderful, 173 00:13:45,491 --> 00:13:47,326 and they’re very inspiring. 174 00:13:47,409 --> 00:13:49,578 And you make lifelong friends. 175 00:13:52,873 --> 00:13:57,545 What a thrill it is to have won this 13th Annual All-Women International Air Race. 176 00:13:57,628 --> 00:13:59,505 Mary and I feel very proud of this. 177 00:13:59,588 --> 00:14:02,800 We’re real happy to be in Florida. What a wonderful state you have. 178 00:14:04,718 --> 00:14:06,846 The air racing was very important. 179 00:14:06,929 --> 00:14:10,474 It proved the mettle. It proved that these gals knew what they were doing. 180 00:14:12,017 --> 00:14:16,647 The racing fraternity was very strong. The bond was very strong. 181 00:14:28,951 --> 00:14:31,161 On October 4, 1957, 182 00:14:31,537 --> 00:14:34,081 a world-stirring event took place. 183 00:14:46,260 --> 00:14:48,929 Sputnik! My word. 184 00:14:49,889 --> 00:14:52,057 To see this thing going around the world. 185 00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:01,525 Space was very, very exciting then. Everybody was into this space business. 186 00:15:03,944 --> 00:15:07,364 I do remember Mother’s extraordinary enthusiasm 187 00:15:07,448 --> 00:15:12,286 when she knew that the Sputnik was gonna be traversing in the sky. 188 00:15:15,998 --> 00:15:20,169 She got us all out of the house and looking up at the sky, and just, I mean, 189 00:15:20,252 --> 00:15:24,256 she had grapefruit juice in her hand, and she poured it all over herself. 190 00:15:24,340 --> 00:15:25,925 She was just so excited. 191 00:15:34,850 --> 00:15:38,687 How quickly it went from just sending up Sputniks … 192 00:15:41,357 --> 00:15:42,691 and then sending up animals. 193 00:15:47,196 --> 00:15:50,783 I think everybody was astounded at those accomplishments. 194 00:15:58,207 --> 00:16:00,918 I remember the Russians had, 195 00:16:01,001 --> 00:16:04,630 at that point in time, had succeeded in every single endeavor. 196 00:16:04,713 --> 00:16:06,215 They were ahead of us. 197 00:16:08,342 --> 00:16:10,970 The United States needed to catch up. 198 00:16:19,937 --> 00:16:24,066 One of these seven young men will be the first American into space. 199 00:16:25,025 --> 00:16:26,902 These are the astronauts. 200 00:16:27,861 --> 00:16:30,114 United States Project Mercury. 201 00:16:35,202 --> 00:16:39,540 When this program started, a lot of the military guys wanted in it. 202 00:16:39,623 --> 00:16:45,421 So they developed criteria for qualification to be an astronaut. 203 00:16:46,588 --> 00:16:47,965 Each must be: 204 00:16:48,799 --> 00:16:51,593 the graduate of a navy or air force test pilot school, 205 00:16:52,511 --> 00:16:54,388 1,500 hours of flight time… 206 00:16:55,472 --> 00:16:57,433 qualified in jet aircraft, 207 00:16:57,850 --> 00:16:59,351 an engineering background, 208 00:17:00,310 --> 00:17:02,563 and 5’11 or less. 209 00:17:04,398 --> 00:17:08,027 Thirty-two candidates reported to the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico 210 00:17:08,110 --> 00:17:11,071 for an exhaustive series of physical examinations. 211 00:17:12,364 --> 00:17:16,118 These tests were divided between those given under normal clinical procedures 212 00:17:16,201 --> 00:17:19,371 and a series used for the first time in Project Mercury. 213 00:17:20,831 --> 00:17:23,167 NASA had picked Dr. Lovelace 214 00:17:23,250 --> 00:17:27,421 to set the standards for the astronauts in the program. 215 00:17:27,504 --> 00:17:31,258 So he had developed the testing, and he had conducted the testing. 216 00:17:31,759 --> 00:17:36,180 The question is, is Dr. Lovelace’s work done? 217 00:17:36,764 --> 00:17:39,808 We hope to continue to participate in the program. 218 00:17:39,892 --> 00:17:43,020 I might say that all our doctors and technicians 219 00:17:43,103 --> 00:17:45,272 are a little tired right at the moment. 220 00:17:46,482 --> 00:17:51,028 My father was Dr. William Randolph Lovelace II. 221 00:17:53,197 --> 00:17:57,826 He had a great smile, but he could also be very serious. 222 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:01,705 He was a surgeon first and foremost, 223 00:18:01,789 --> 00:18:07,795 but was always involved with aviation, then aerospace medicine. 224 00:18:09,671 --> 00:18:14,802 He was invited to be head of space medicine for NASA. 225 00:18:17,763 --> 00:18:18,931 That was a fun time 226 00:18:19,014 --> 00:18:23,102 because the seven astronauts came to our house for dinner almost every night. 227 00:18:23,811 --> 00:18:27,981 And we were instructed to make conversation with everyone. 228 00:18:28,065 --> 00:18:30,275 So we did, and ate with them, 229 00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:33,862 voted on them each night in terms of who we liked the best, 230 00:18:33,946 --> 00:18:37,157 and would tell our father in the morning at breakfast. 231 00:18:37,241 --> 00:18:39,451 It was always Scott Carpenter. 232 00:18:41,620 --> 00:18:43,247 It was just an amazing time. 233 00:18:43,330 --> 00:18:47,960 They’d make fun of my father and the tests that he made them do, and… 234 00:18:49,211 --> 00:18:52,214 But there was obviously respect there. 235 00:18:52,297 --> 00:18:58,762 I think the tests out of Dr. Lovelace’s place in Albuquerque out there, 236 00:18:58,846 --> 00:19:02,808 uh, certainly some of the tests we had out there were the most trying. 237 00:19:02,891 --> 00:19:04,810 And it’s rather difficult to pick one, 238 00:19:04,893 --> 00:19:08,480 because if you figure how many openings there are on the human body 239 00:19:08,564 --> 00:19:10,732 and how far you can go in any one of ’em… 240 00:19:14,319 --> 00:19:15,654 You gave it away. 241 00:19:17,906 --> 00:19:22,703 Now you answer which one would be the toughest for you, and that’s it. 242 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,500 The cookie cutters. Cookie-cutter males. 243 00:19:29,209 --> 00:19:33,881 And cookie-cutter means there was no difference in their religion, 244 00:19:33,964 --> 00:19:37,467 in their state of origin, or anything. 245 00:19:37,551 --> 00:19:40,095 They were just all exactly the same. 246 00:19:47,227 --> 00:19:50,898 My father felt very strongly about having 247 00:19:50,981 --> 00:19:53,901 a group of women astronauts. 248 00:19:55,319 --> 00:20:00,199 If you’re a pioneer, you just start with your instincts, I guess. 249 00:20:01,783 --> 00:20:04,953 He felt that women had a definite role in space, 250 00:20:05,037 --> 00:20:10,918 that there were... physically and emotionally, that they had some attributes 251 00:20:11,001 --> 00:20:14,254 that were stronger than the male astronauts’. 252 00:20:15,714 --> 00:20:18,592 And he wanted to test their capability 253 00:20:18,675 --> 00:20:24,514 by comparing their test results to the test results of the male astronauts. 254 00:20:26,475 --> 00:20:28,018 Clearly, 255 00:20:28,769 --> 00:20:34,316 one of the women in his life that catapulted that into action 256 00:20:34,399 --> 00:20:36,526 was his relationship with Jackie Cochran. 257 00:20:40,197 --> 00:20:44,159 I’m Jacqueline Cochran, and I really would like to be the first woman in space. 258 00:20:44,826 --> 00:20:51,041 Anyone who’s spent as much time in the air as I have in the last 34 years 259 00:20:51,124 --> 00:20:54,544 is bound to yearn to go a little bit farther. 260 00:20:55,462 --> 00:20:58,090 Jackie Cochran was my godmother. 261 00:20:58,674 --> 00:21:00,008 And… 262 00:21:01,009 --> 00:21:03,929 Floyd Odlum actually was on our board of directors. 263 00:21:04,012 --> 00:21:05,389 I think he was the president. 264 00:21:05,472 --> 00:21:09,726 He was the original chairman of our board for the Lovelace Clinic. 265 00:21:10,477 --> 00:21:13,480 So he turned to Floyd Odlum and Jackie, 266 00:21:14,439 --> 00:21:18,068 and they financed that study. 267 00:21:28,245 --> 00:21:29,871 This was his program. 268 00:21:29,955 --> 00:21:34,584 Dr. Lovelace did it on his own, outside of his contract with NASA… 269 00:21:35,627 --> 00:21:40,299 and invited 25 women to come and take the physical exam, 270 00:21:40,382 --> 00:21:43,218 very similar to what the astronauts were taking. 271 00:21:44,261 --> 00:21:49,850 They had a list of the top pilots that they knew. 272 00:21:49,933 --> 00:21:54,396 And one of the first that was called was Jerrie Cobb. 273 00:21:55,147 --> 00:21:56,898 She was a great gal. 274 00:21:57,858 --> 00:22:01,111 I was asked by Dr. Lovelace and General Flickinger 275 00:22:01,194 --> 00:22:04,740 to be the first woman to go through these astronaut tests. 276 00:22:04,823 --> 00:22:06,241 This was in 1959. 277 00:22:06,325 --> 00:22:10,996 Both of them had just come back from a scientific meeting in Moscow. 278 00:22:11,079 --> 00:22:15,500 At that time, they had heard the Russians were gonna train women cosmonauts. 279 00:22:15,584 --> 00:22:17,627 And this was over three years ago. 280 00:22:17,711 --> 00:22:20,797 So they thought we ought to get together and start doing something. 281 00:22:20,881 --> 00:22:24,134 They asked me if I would be the first woman to undergo the astronaut test, 282 00:22:24,217 --> 00:22:27,471 which I was, couldn’t say yes fast enough, and then... 283 00:22:27,554 --> 00:22:30,057 Now, I knew Jerrie because she flew the Aero Commander. 284 00:22:30,140 --> 00:22:32,392 She had done a lot of flying. 285 00:22:32,476 --> 00:22:36,772 She flew a lot into South America. And I knew her life. 286 00:22:36,855 --> 00:22:39,900 I knew Jerrie Cobb, yeah. She was a good pilot. 287 00:22:39,983 --> 00:22:43,361 But I think I could fly as well as she could. 288 00:22:43,445 --> 00:22:46,865 She may not think so, but I think I could’ve. 289 00:22:46,948 --> 00:22:50,535 Why, in the Western program, do you think there is a need, 290 00:22:50,619 --> 00:22:53,371 if you feel there is a need, for women in space? 291 00:22:53,747 --> 00:22:57,542 Well, it’s the same thing as, is there a need for men in space? 292 00:22:57,626 --> 00:23:00,003 I mean, if we’re going to send a human being into space, 293 00:23:00,087 --> 00:23:02,130 we should send the one most qualified. 294 00:23:02,214 --> 00:23:06,468 And in certain areas women have a lot to offer, and other areas, men do. 295 00:23:06,551 --> 00:23:08,303 I think that we ought to use both. 296 00:23:08,386 --> 00:23:11,223 Jerrie and I were from Oklahoma. I was at Fort Sill. 297 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:14,851 She called and said, Do you want to be an astronaut? 298 00:23:14,935 --> 00:23:16,394 I said," Absolutely." 299 00:23:16,478 --> 00:23:17,729 I knew Wally. 300 00:23:17,813 --> 00:23:22,943 And Wally took me aside one time when we were having a competition, 301 00:23:23,026 --> 00:23:26,738 and she said," I’m in a secret program." 302 00:23:26,822 --> 00:23:30,075 It’s an astronaut program, and it’s very secret. 303 00:23:30,450 --> 00:23:34,162 And I thought," That sounds like fun. I think I want to get involved in that." 304 00:23:34,246 --> 00:23:37,082 So here’s my letter to Dr. Lovelace saying, 305 00:23:37,666 --> 00:23:40,544 I’m physically fit and I’m a pilot, 306 00:23:40,627 --> 00:23:42,629 and I’d like to participate in your tests. 307 00:23:42,712 --> 00:23:46,133 And here’s his letter back. And he encloses a card 308 00:23:46,216 --> 00:23:50,387 which outlines the qualifications of the women astronauts. 309 00:23:51,012 --> 00:23:54,766 First thing they ask you is, What are your total flying hours? 310 00:23:54,850 --> 00:23:56,309 I can tell ’em that. 311 00:23:56,726 --> 00:23:59,062 Then they wanna know your total jet hours, 312 00:23:59,146 --> 00:24:02,399 your aircraft flown hours in each: balloon flights, parachute jumps, 313 00:24:02,482 --> 00:24:04,651 hours flown over 20,000 feet, 314 00:24:04,734 --> 00:24:08,238 hours flown over 30,000 feet, hours flown over 40,000 feet, 315 00:24:08,321 --> 00:24:12,576 low-pressure chamber indoctrination, explosive decompression experience, 316 00:24:12,659 --> 00:24:15,078 partial pressure suit experience. 317 00:24:15,162 --> 00:24:17,998 I could answer number one. 318 00:24:18,081 --> 00:24:21,585 Yeah. None of us had any qualification. She was an engineer. 319 00:24:21,668 --> 00:24:23,336 We were subjects to be tested. 320 00:24:31,094 --> 00:24:32,846 B was on that list. 321 00:24:33,513 --> 00:24:37,851 This was something that fit so much what she was. 322 00:24:37,934 --> 00:24:39,978 I mean, she was… 323 00:24:41,188 --> 00:24:45,567 one of the finest professional pilots in the country, bar none, men or women. 324 00:24:47,527 --> 00:24:49,738 They contacted me. I... 325 00:24:49,821 --> 00:24:54,659 And I guess they knew I was flying, and so they talked to me about it. 326 00:25:04,711 --> 00:25:08,882 I was on a tour of Europe, and there were, kind of, rumors in the background 327 00:25:08,965 --> 00:25:12,219 of what was going on and how names had been asked for. 328 00:25:12,719 --> 00:25:14,930 And the next thing I knew, I got a phone call. 329 00:25:18,516 --> 00:25:21,436 I went to my boss, and I said, "I’ve been invited 330 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,397 to go take an astronaut physical exam." 331 00:25:24,940 --> 00:25:27,275 My boss said, We cannot spare you. 332 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:31,905 So I quit my job to go take this... these tests. 333 00:25:34,324 --> 00:25:36,076 I was the youngest. 334 00:25:36,159 --> 00:25:38,453 Second one to go through after Jerrie, 335 00:25:38,995 --> 00:25:42,165 maybe the third, in February of ’61. 336 00:25:45,168 --> 00:25:48,213 There were three phases of astronaut testing. 337 00:25:48,672 --> 00:25:51,549 Phase one was at Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque. 338 00:25:52,717 --> 00:25:55,637 My parents drove me there and had to sign me in. 339 00:25:56,930 --> 00:25:59,349 We went through either singly or in pairs. 340 00:25:59,432 --> 00:26:03,353 And I went through with Janey Hart, who was a marvelous person. 341 00:26:05,105 --> 00:26:08,316 Janey Hart, you know, you weren’t supposed to have children, 342 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:09,985 and Janey Hart had eight. 343 00:26:10,068 --> 00:26:12,529 They were so curious about her that they invited her in. 344 00:26:12,612 --> 00:26:16,032 So she and I went through it together. We were the last two to go together. 345 00:26:31,631 --> 00:26:33,508 It took five days. 346 00:26:34,092 --> 00:26:36,553 And they were quite incredible, 347 00:26:36,636 --> 00:26:41,808 because they didn’t really know what to think our bodies would do 348 00:26:41,891 --> 00:26:46,563 in the outer atmospheres, or how we were going to react. 349 00:26:57,991 --> 00:27:02,829 The testing was arduous. It was thorough and long hours. 350 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:08,376 It was a little bit more thorough than most physical examinations. 351 00:27:09,878 --> 00:27:12,047 You’d run from one test to the next test. 352 00:27:12,547 --> 00:27:14,924 We had pulmonary function tests… 353 00:27:15,008 --> 00:27:18,803 Some of ’em were not... not, uh, real friendly to the body. 354 00:27:18,887 --> 00:27:22,057 …total body determination tests… 355 00:27:22,140 --> 00:27:25,935 - Some of ’em were kind of exotic. - Every tooth was taken, pictures. 356 00:27:26,019 --> 00:27:28,146 Some of ’em were kind of strange. 357 00:27:28,229 --> 00:27:31,566 Every bone in my body had an X-ray. 358 00:27:32,317 --> 00:27:35,362 They x-rayed and x-rayed and x-rayed. 359 00:27:38,156 --> 00:27:42,535 They gave me two cups, and one said Urine and one said Stool. 360 00:27:42,619 --> 00:27:45,622 I was having fun. I just kinda laughed at some of the stuff. 361 00:27:45,705 --> 00:27:48,041 I said," I don’t know what 'stool' is." A stool, to me, 362 00:27:48,124 --> 00:27:51,795 is when I was sitting on a stool milking cows in Taos. 363 00:27:52,212 --> 00:27:53,463 I don’t know what you mean. 364 00:27:53,963 --> 00:27:56,966 Oh. A stool is when you go to the bathroom. 365 00:27:57,050 --> 00:27:58,843 I said," You don’t want that, do you?" 366 00:27:58,927 --> 00:28:02,097 I’ll tell you very confidentially, don’t tell anybody this, 367 00:28:02,514 --> 00:28:04,641 we had an enema every morning. 368 00:28:04,974 --> 00:28:06,184 I said, "Wow." 369 00:28:06,267 --> 00:28:09,062 There were some really oddball things like that. 370 00:28:09,145 --> 00:28:13,566 They inject water, ten-degree water into my ears, 371 00:28:13,650 --> 00:28:17,946 and that’s when your body just does not… function. 372 00:28:18,279 --> 00:28:20,407 You have no control over your body. 373 00:28:20,490 --> 00:28:23,368 Oh, yeah. I remember that. Yeah. 374 00:28:23,451 --> 00:28:25,620 I didn’t like it, but I did it. 375 00:28:25,703 --> 00:28:27,831 What they were doing to those gals was just ugly. 376 00:28:28,623 --> 00:28:31,084 Really none of the tests stood out that much. 377 00:28:36,798 --> 00:28:41,678 Shortly after I left, Jacqueline Cochran was coming in for an interview too. 378 00:28:42,762 --> 00:28:44,431 And she had taken some tests, 379 00:28:44,514 --> 00:28:48,393 and he was going to give her the results of the tests, he told me. 380 00:28:48,476 --> 00:28:51,813 And I believe he told me, She’s not gonna be happy with this. 381 00:28:51,896 --> 00:28:55,942 So she found that she wasn’t gonna be able to be a part of the program. 382 00:28:56,025 --> 00:28:57,861 I think that was kind of a downer for her. 383 00:28:57,944 --> 00:29:00,864 She was too old, I think, at that point, 384 00:29:00,947 --> 00:29:04,200 to even be considered for spaceflight. 385 00:29:05,611 --> 00:29:07,237 Those aren’t the issues to her. 386 00:29:08,663 --> 00:29:12,125 Would you like to be a Mercury astronaut, or astronautte? 387 00:29:12,208 --> 00:29:14,919 I would like very, very much to be. 388 00:29:15,003 --> 00:29:18,298 I don’t think age has a thing to do with it as long as you’re healthy and vigorous, 389 00:29:18,381 --> 00:29:21,551 and I’m all of that. After I got through yesterday, you know what I did? 390 00:29:21,634 --> 00:29:23,874 - No, what? - Went out and played 18 holes of golf, 391 00:29:23,928 --> 00:29:25,180 and then cooked dinner. 392 00:29:32,526 --> 00:29:35,354 The very last day, they told me I had passed. 393 00:29:35,982 --> 00:29:38,109 And that meant a great deal to me. 394 00:29:38,776 --> 00:29:41,347 It was very nice when some of the doctors said 395 00:29:41,425 --> 00:29:44,532 that I had done very well on these tests. 396 00:29:46,451 --> 00:29:49,662 Remarkably, you know, after having nine full pregnancies, 397 00:29:50,442 --> 00:29:53,486 she just had a body that wouldn’t quit. It was great. 398 00:29:54,667 --> 00:30:00,381 And of the 23ish girls who were taken, only 13 passed. 399 00:30:01,823 --> 00:30:05,451 Later, when B sat down with Randy Lovelace, 400 00:30:06,031 --> 00:30:10,744 he was absolutely thrilled at what the women so far had done. 401 00:30:28,743 --> 00:30:32,455 I was following it. Of course I was following what the Russians were doing. 402 00:30:56,354 --> 00:30:58,815 When Yuri Gagarin went up, 403 00:30:58,898 --> 00:31:02,318 you know, just a phenomenal thing to happen. 404 00:31:03,319 --> 00:31:06,239 That was a huge event. All of us were conscious of it. 405 00:31:06,322 --> 00:31:09,993 All of us were conscious of the competition with Russia, 406 00:31:10,076 --> 00:31:12,453 the Soviet Union, at the same time. 407 00:31:12,537 --> 00:31:15,415 So there was... there was the space race 408 00:31:15,498 --> 00:31:18,501 as well as just the scientific adventure hook. 409 00:31:20,879 --> 00:31:23,923 My memories are, Why can’t the Americans do it? 410 00:31:24,757 --> 00:31:27,093 This was the feeling at the time. 411 00:31:27,844 --> 00:31:30,597 The Russians were basically crowing, 412 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,809 and they were clearly in advance of our space program. 413 00:31:37,896 --> 00:31:42,191 Our Mercury men were being prepared, basically, to compete. 414 00:31:42,275 --> 00:31:45,862 Three… two… one… zero. 415 00:31:49,115 --> 00:31:50,199 Liftoff. 416 00:31:50,283 --> 00:31:53,286 All right, now. Liftoff, and the clock has started. 417 00:31:55,288 --> 00:31:57,749 Yes, sir. Reading you loud and clear. 418 00:31:59,208 --> 00:32:02,086 This is Freedom 7 . The fuel is go. 419 00:32:06,424 --> 00:32:11,846 They were strapped into a seat and sent up there and brought back down. 420 00:32:11,930 --> 00:32:15,016 And, Whoopee, here I am. I made it, but I didn’t fly it. 421 00:32:26,611 --> 00:32:30,823 Phase two was in Oklahoma City, and I stayed at Jerrie’s house. 422 00:32:30,907 --> 00:32:33,368 And that was the psychological tests. 423 00:32:33,451 --> 00:32:37,914 I heard about a test where you were submerged in a tank of water and, 424 00:32:37,997 --> 00:32:43,002 for a long period of time, lost all the normal five senses. 425 00:32:43,086 --> 00:32:44,963 That was a very interesting experiment 426 00:32:45,046 --> 00:32:48,049 where they isolate you in a tank of warm water. 427 00:32:51,511 --> 00:32:53,846 The tank was in a great big room. 428 00:32:54,347 --> 00:32:56,808 They had already put the earplugs in my ears. 429 00:32:56,891 --> 00:33:00,937 And I had just enough foam rubber to go under the small of my back, 430 00:33:01,020 --> 00:33:04,816 and I was to lay on the water as long as possible. 431 00:33:08,486 --> 00:33:12,615 So I get in the water, and I get comfortable, and I spread-eagle out. 432 00:33:12,699 --> 00:33:15,326 And I thought, "There’s something wrong here." 433 00:33:16,619 --> 00:33:18,246 I splashed the water, 434 00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:20,331 couldn’t feel it. 435 00:33:21,833 --> 00:33:24,377 Splashed my face, couldn’t feel any water. 436 00:33:25,253 --> 00:33:26,796 Couldn’t feel anything. 437 00:33:29,215 --> 00:33:32,301 She found it interesting that in that sensory deprivation chamber, 438 00:33:32,385 --> 00:33:37,557 so-called, that the women were perfectly happy to be there forever, 439 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,893 and that the men just couldn’t take it. They started crawling out of their skin. 440 00:33:41,352 --> 00:33:43,438 You just sort of feel nothing. 441 00:33:43,521 --> 00:33:46,941 It’s very relaxing, I found it, and very peaceful. 442 00:33:47,025 --> 00:33:49,861 I’d been on quite a schedule before I went in there. 443 00:33:49,944 --> 00:33:52,030 So I sort of welcomed the rest, 444 00:33:52,113 --> 00:33:55,283 and set a record for staying in nine and a half hours. 445 00:33:55,700 --> 00:34:00,872 But most of the people, the average, uh, mature person, 446 00:34:00,955 --> 00:34:04,208 after about three hours of this, starts hallucinations. 447 00:34:13,384 --> 00:34:16,804 What’s gone on here is the temperature of the water, 448 00:34:16,888 --> 00:34:18,514 the humidity of the room… 449 00:34:19,849 --> 00:34:23,144 was my exact body temperature 450 00:34:23,227 --> 00:34:27,857 to make me feel in a weightless situation, laying on the water. 451 00:34:37,533 --> 00:34:40,703 This is what they thought space travel would be like. 452 00:34:42,872 --> 00:34:44,373 So I lay there. 453 00:34:46,125 --> 00:34:48,002 I think I fell asleep 454 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:50,671 maybe for a minute or so. 455 00:35:05,728 --> 00:35:08,731 I was thinking about how wonderful it would be 456 00:35:09,398 --> 00:35:12,860 to be up there and feel the lightness. 457 00:35:14,695 --> 00:35:16,197 It was freedom. 458 00:35:17,949 --> 00:35:20,451 You can look up, you can see the stars… 459 00:35:21,911 --> 00:35:23,329 the moon, and the sun. 460 00:35:25,248 --> 00:35:27,291 And you wonder, How does it all work? 461 00:35:31,671 --> 00:35:33,422 I didn’t have the answers. 462 00:35:34,632 --> 00:35:36,759 But I was thinking about all this. 463 00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:43,808 Floating amongst the stars, that is my objective. 464 00:35:49,522 --> 00:35:53,734 The third testing was to go to Pensacola, Florida with the navy. 465 00:35:53,818 --> 00:35:56,988 We were all going to go down there at the same time, all 13 of us. 466 00:35:57,071 --> 00:35:59,111 It would be the first time we would meet each other. 467 00:36:01,325 --> 00:36:04,203 This is a letter from Jacqueline Cochran. 468 00:36:06,497 --> 00:36:10,960 See, Dr. Randolph Lovelace II of the Lovelace Foundation 469 00:36:11,043 --> 00:36:16,257 has notified you of the invitation to go to Pensacola, Florida 470 00:36:16,340 --> 00:36:19,802 for a... take a series of tests 471 00:36:19,886 --> 00:36:23,514 to start on September 18, 1961. 472 00:36:24,473 --> 00:36:26,684 I strongly urge you to go. 473 00:36:32,190 --> 00:36:34,400 We were gonna get jet orientation. 474 00:36:34,483 --> 00:36:36,194 We were gonna get the centrifuge. 475 00:36:36,277 --> 00:36:39,113 There were just gonna be lots of neat things that were gonna happen. 476 00:36:40,698 --> 00:36:43,492 Flying jets, oh, she was looking forward to that. 477 00:36:53,669 --> 00:36:57,256 They had been given their tickets, their time. Everything was set up. 478 00:37:00,301 --> 00:37:03,930 We were supposed to report there on, I think it was on a Monday, 479 00:37:04,388 --> 00:37:08,142 and I remember B Steadman telling me she had her golf clubs packed. 480 00:37:19,195 --> 00:37:21,155 That’s when NASA got wind of it. 481 00:37:22,990 --> 00:37:26,035 They didn’t know anything about Dr. Lovelace’s program. 482 00:37:30,122 --> 00:37:33,834 Regret to advise arrangements at Pensacola canceled. 483 00:37:34,543 --> 00:37:38,506 Probably will not be possible to carry out this part of the program. 484 00:37:38,589 --> 00:37:42,843 You may return expense advance allotment to Lovelace Foundation. 485 00:37:45,012 --> 00:37:46,264 Here’s another one. 486 00:37:47,223 --> 00:37:50,851 Miss Cobb has just informed us from Washington that she has been unable 487 00:37:50,935 --> 00:37:55,231 to reverse the decision postponing the Florida testing. 488 00:37:56,065 --> 00:37:59,318 I’m very sorry for such short notice, but it is unavoidable. 489 00:38:06,951 --> 00:38:10,538 When he had the results, which he thought were superior to the men, 490 00:38:10,621 --> 00:38:14,292 so he did tell us that and we all thought that was really cool, 491 00:38:14,750 --> 00:38:16,752 he took the results to Washington. 492 00:38:16,836 --> 00:38:18,254 They said, 493 00:38:18,337 --> 00:38:21,924 We have no need for women astronauts. Forget it. 494 00:38:22,758 --> 00:38:26,470 There was certainly no great desire on the part of NASA. 495 00:38:26,929 --> 00:38:32,601 In fact, I’m confident that they were surprised, terribly surprised, 496 00:38:32,685 --> 00:38:36,105 by the fact that the women succeeded as they did. 497 00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:41,360 They did not want this program, pure and simple. 498 00:38:43,404 --> 00:38:46,949 Said it had to be the biggest slap in the face he’d ever had. 499 00:38:48,659 --> 00:38:52,204 I mean, it had to be… pretty devastating. 500 00:39:01,922 --> 00:39:03,924 It was very heartbreaking for me… 501 00:39:05,634 --> 00:39:08,512 because I wanted to go on and pursue this. 502 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:15,227 But we kept getting letters from Jerrie Cobb: 503 00:39:15,311 --> 00:39:18,230 Keep up your hopes. Keep up your aviation. 504 00:39:19,899 --> 00:39:24,111 Maybe we can get the program reinstated and go on. 505 00:39:30,951 --> 00:39:32,244 Shortly after, 506 00:39:32,703 --> 00:39:36,499 I was at an airport where there was a lot of helicopter training. 507 00:39:38,918 --> 00:39:42,505 I just decided, I think I’ll learn how to do that too. 508 00:39:44,715 --> 00:39:48,177 All the men were jealous of this woman flying a helicopter. 509 00:39:48,761 --> 00:39:51,263 And they’d park it real close to the hangar. 510 00:39:51,347 --> 00:39:55,309 And I was a little afraid to take it up and over into a hover. 511 00:39:56,977 --> 00:39:59,647 But I kind of put it out of my mind. I didn’t care. 512 00:40:01,649 --> 00:40:03,818 I was going to keep on fighting. 513 00:40:10,741 --> 00:40:12,785 Well, I was disappointed. 514 00:40:13,369 --> 00:40:17,373 But about that time I decided that I would like to move out of flight instructing 515 00:40:17,456 --> 00:40:19,834 and go into a different kind of flying. 516 00:40:20,459 --> 00:40:24,380 So off I went to work for Beech Aircraft Corporation. 517 00:40:25,214 --> 00:40:30,302 And they were getting ready to introduce a new model airplane named the Musketeer. 518 00:40:37,351 --> 00:40:41,230 There were only two women in the United States flying for aircraft manufacturers, 519 00:40:41,313 --> 00:40:44,775 and one of ’em was Jerrie Cobb, who was flying for Aero Commander. 520 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,905 The other one was Joyce Case, who was flying for Beech Aircraft. 521 00:40:53,534 --> 00:40:56,579 They were getting ready to introduce a Musketeer. 522 00:40:56,662 --> 00:41:00,791 They were gonna fly three of ’em in all 48 contiguous states for 90 days, 523 00:41:01,375 --> 00:41:02,918 uh, introducing the airplane. 524 00:41:04,295 --> 00:41:07,506 And of course, if two of the three pilots are female, 525 00:41:07,590 --> 00:41:09,133 we’ll get a lot of free publicity. 526 00:41:10,009 --> 00:41:13,929 And I can tell you that we always flew in a dress and high heels. 527 00:41:26,484 --> 00:41:29,320 We were workin’ hard. We were flyin’, flyin’, flyin’. 528 00:41:30,696 --> 00:41:32,281 We got used to flying in formation. 529 00:41:32,364 --> 00:41:35,576 We knew nothing about flying formation when we started out. 530 00:41:37,453 --> 00:41:40,289 But after a few days of it, we got pretty good at it. 531 00:41:45,085 --> 00:41:48,589 We made some 80 changes in that airplane the first year. 532 00:41:50,508 --> 00:41:53,260 So we were test pilots. No question about that. 533 00:41:59,141 --> 00:42:01,268 I was hired right after the tests 534 00:42:01,352 --> 00:42:05,773 to go to California and be with Center Aviation. 535 00:42:06,941 --> 00:42:11,487 I bought my Stearman, and I taught myself acrobatics. 536 00:42:22,414 --> 00:42:24,416 I love it when I can go flying. 537 00:42:25,376 --> 00:42:27,545 I love it when I can do acrobatics. 538 00:42:30,464 --> 00:42:33,717 It is fabulous because you are free. 539 00:42:33,801 --> 00:42:37,054 You’re not attached to the gravity of the Earth. 540 00:42:37,555 --> 00:42:40,349 You can do what you want to do. 541 00:42:40,975 --> 00:42:44,728 And that’s how I feel and that’s how I think. 542 00:42:44,812 --> 00:42:46,105 Freedom. 543 00:43:20,139 --> 00:43:22,141 I dream about space. 544 00:43:23,934 --> 00:43:25,519 I wanna be up there. 545 00:43:26,895 --> 00:43:28,522 That’s part of me. 546 00:43:37,114 --> 00:43:39,241 How am I gonna get up there? 547 00:43:39,325 --> 00:43:40,951 I have to imagine. 548 00:43:41,952 --> 00:43:44,955 I’m not a jet. I am not a person. 549 00:43:46,206 --> 00:43:48,208 I’m a spirit going up. 550 00:43:56,467 --> 00:43:57,593 Roger. 551 00:43:58,093 --> 00:44:00,322 - Fifteen seconds. - Good Lord, ride all the way. 552 00:44:00,346 --> 00:44:02,348 In Godspeed, John Glenn. 553 00:44:19,573 --> 00:44:22,993 Glenn was the first to orbit. The first American. 554 00:44:23,077 --> 00:44:27,373 Roger. Cape is go, and I am go. Our capsule is in good shape. 555 00:44:31,085 --> 00:44:35,714 And, let’s face it, you’re going up there in an untested system. 556 00:44:35,798 --> 00:44:39,301 Nobody, nobody really knows what’s going to happen. 557 00:44:39,385 --> 00:44:43,722 Roger. Zero G and I feel fine. Capsule is turning around. 558 00:44:44,682 --> 00:44:46,892 Oh, that view is tremendous. 559 00:44:47,601 --> 00:44:50,771 So I give Glenn credit for courage. 560 00:44:51,605 --> 00:44:53,690 I give them all credit for courage. 561 00:44:54,108 --> 00:44:56,694 Uh, Friendship 7, this is Cape. Do you read? 562 00:44:57,403 --> 00:45:00,280 This is Friendship 7. A real fireball outside. 563 00:45:00,739 --> 00:45:04,952 At the same time, I give the women the same credit for the same courage. 564 00:45:06,412 --> 00:45:08,956 Their willingness to take part in the unknown 565 00:45:09,039 --> 00:45:12,751 was equally strong and as courageous as that of the men. 566 00:45:19,758 --> 00:45:24,596 About that time, Jerrie had contacted the women and said, 567 00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:29,601 Okay. Let’s... Let’s make noise because they’ve cheated us 568 00:45:29,685 --> 00:45:33,188 by not letting us go to Pensacola and take more testing. 569 00:45:33,272 --> 00:45:35,107 So the secret is out. 570 00:45:45,451 --> 00:45:50,247 Jerrie Cobb and Janey Hart figured they would go up before this Senate committee 571 00:45:50,330 --> 00:45:55,711 and they would get the program reinstated, because Janey Hart had political clout. 572 00:45:58,630 --> 00:46:01,508 My father was elected to the Senate 573 00:46:01,592 --> 00:46:04,720 after having been the lieutenant governor of Michigan. 574 00:46:06,263 --> 00:46:11,852 Janey and Jerrie Cobb felt that Congress ought to tell NASA, 575 00:46:11,935 --> 00:46:14,730 Now, let’s get with this. Let’s do this. 576 00:46:33,332 --> 00:46:35,667 Both Miss Cobb and Mrs. Hart, 577 00:46:36,043 --> 00:46:38,629 if everyone is agreeable, we will begin the questioning. 578 00:46:40,172 --> 00:46:42,883 Janey started with an opening statement. 579 00:46:45,385 --> 00:46:49,014 I strongly believe women should have a role in space research. 580 00:46:51,767 --> 00:46:53,977 In fact, it’s inconceivable to me 581 00:46:54,061 --> 00:46:57,940 that the world of outer space should be restricted to men only, 582 00:46:58,023 --> 00:47:00,192 like some sort of stag club. 583 00:47:02,820 --> 00:47:05,614 A hundred years ago, it was quite inconceivable 584 00:47:05,697 --> 00:47:09,159 that women should serve as hospital attendants. 585 00:47:09,493 --> 00:47:12,120 Their essentially frail and emotional structure 586 00:47:12,204 --> 00:47:16,458 would never stand the horrors of a military dressing station. 587 00:47:18,126 --> 00:47:22,005 Finally, it was agreed to allow some women to try it, 588 00:47:22,089 --> 00:47:25,801 provided they were middle-aged and ugly, 589 00:47:26,385 --> 00:47:30,055 ugly women presumably having more strength of character. 590 00:47:32,516 --> 00:47:33,850 I submit, Mr. Chairman, 591 00:47:33,934 --> 00:47:37,563 that a woman in space today is no more preposterous 592 00:47:37,646 --> 00:47:40,941 than a woman in a field hospital a hundred years ago. 593 00:47:41,525 --> 00:47:43,402 Mrs. Hart, you’re the mother of eight children. 594 00:47:43,485 --> 00:47:48,615 Do you think it’ll be difficult for a woman astronaut to also have a family? 595 00:47:50,158 --> 00:47:51,910 In which order? Uh... 596 00:47:51,994 --> 00:47:53,954 - Well, I’m asking you that. Which order? - Um... 597 00:47:54,037 --> 00:47:56,999 Well, I’ve accomplished the production of eight children 598 00:47:57,082 --> 00:47:58,625 and am in the process of raising them, 599 00:47:58,709 --> 00:48:03,255 and I’ve still been able to acquire 2,000 hours of flying time 600 00:48:03,338 --> 00:48:05,173 and considerable aeronautical experience, 601 00:48:05,257 --> 00:48:08,969 and also to help my husband, uh, in his campaigns and so forth. 602 00:48:09,052 --> 00:48:12,389 So this indicates that I’ve been able to make constructive use of my time 603 00:48:12,472 --> 00:48:15,475 outside of... of, uh having the children. 604 00:48:15,559 --> 00:48:19,438 And I don’t think that the family life has been sacrificed one bit. 605 00:48:19,521 --> 00:48:22,899 You should probably ask the children this and see how they feel about it. 606 00:48:22,983 --> 00:48:26,987 For her, if she can have eight kids in ten years and make it work, 607 00:48:27,070 --> 00:48:30,824 the idea of going to space, I think, was not that great a challenge. 608 00:48:30,907 --> 00:48:34,953 They once asked her, Why would you wanna go to the moon? This was in the paper. 609 00:48:35,037 --> 00:48:38,832 And she said, "With eight kids, you’d want to go to the moon too." 610 00:48:41,877 --> 00:48:45,922 All right, Miss Cobb. Do you have a prepared statement? Miss Cobb: Yes. 611 00:48:51,720 --> 00:48:57,392 We women pilots who want to be a part of space exploration 612 00:48:57,476 --> 00:49:00,979 are not trying to join a battle of the sexes. 613 00:49:02,898 --> 00:49:08,070 We seek only a place in our nation’s space future 614 00:49:08,153 --> 00:49:10,197 without discrimination. 615 00:49:11,031 --> 00:49:13,867 We ask as citizens of the nation 616 00:49:13,950 --> 00:49:19,831 to be allowed to participate with seriousness and sincerity 617 00:49:19,915 --> 00:49:24,544 in the making of history now, as women have done in the past. 618 00:49:27,214 --> 00:49:32,219 No nation has yet sent a female into space. 619 00:49:32,803 --> 00:49:37,766 We offer you 13 women pilot volunteers. 620 00:49:40,018 --> 00:49:42,729 Miss Cobb, do you think women are being discriminated against 621 00:49:42,813 --> 00:49:44,231 in the space program? 622 00:49:44,690 --> 00:49:47,734 I don’t think necessarily they’re being discriminated against. 623 00:49:47,818 --> 00:49:50,445 I think that the rules have been established 624 00:49:50,529 --> 00:49:52,948 to where it makes... it makes it impossible 625 00:49:53,031 --> 00:49:56,159 for women to meet the qualifications of astronauts. 626 00:49:57,536 --> 00:50:01,373 The most hyped-up qualifying catch-22, of course, 627 00:50:01,456 --> 00:50:06,211 was that all of them were test pilots and jet-certified pilots 628 00:50:06,670 --> 00:50:09,423 and fighter pilots, in most cases. 629 00:50:09,506 --> 00:50:13,051 So they had that qualification that no women had. 630 00:50:13,135 --> 00:50:15,053 But of course, they couldn’t, 631 00:50:15,137 --> 00:50:17,764 because they weren’t allowed to become jet fighter pilots. 632 00:50:17,848 --> 00:50:19,599 There was a law. 633 00:50:19,683 --> 00:50:23,937 Eisenhower had put a law in that for women to fly military aircraft, 634 00:50:24,020 --> 00:50:25,355 they had to be men. 635 00:50:26,064 --> 00:50:30,444 I don’t think they should become astronauts because, uh, uh, 636 00:50:30,527 --> 00:50:33,864 I don’t... men are more mature than women. 637 00:50:33,947 --> 00:50:37,909 I think they should. I think that women should have an equal right with men, 638 00:50:37,993 --> 00:50:42,247 and if they would qualify and like to go, they should be trained and sent. 639 00:50:42,330 --> 00:50:46,960 Yes, I do. Because they’re, well, they’re lighter, and small, and… 640 00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:51,757 Well, I just think they ought to be. 641 00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:55,218 - And what about your opinion? - No, I disagree. I think that, uh... 642 00:50:55,302 --> 00:50:59,055 I don’t think women are physically fit to be astronauts. 643 00:50:59,139 --> 00:51:01,808 I certainly do think women should be astronauts. 644 00:51:01,892 --> 00:51:06,062 If they’re physically fit, mentally alert, they’re not any different than men are. 645 00:51:06,146 --> 00:51:08,899 In fact, there are less women going to psychiatrists than men, 646 00:51:08,982 --> 00:51:11,568 so that gives you some idea as to their mental capabilities. 647 00:51:24,247 --> 00:51:28,376 The people who held the hearing, they were in such awe of the astronauts 648 00:51:28,460 --> 00:51:31,463 who came and spoke and testified. 649 00:51:32,756 --> 00:51:36,968 Scott Carpenter and John Glenn gave their point of view. 650 00:51:38,470 --> 00:51:41,890 John Glenn was the hero. He was God. 651 00:51:42,724 --> 00:51:44,184 Space God. 652 00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:47,979 Oh, John Glenn. Yes. 653 00:51:49,022 --> 00:51:52,067 Not one of our family’s favorite characters, 654 00:51:52,150 --> 00:51:53,777 certainly not Mother’s. 655 00:51:55,862 --> 00:51:57,823 John Glenn made his statement. 656 00:51:59,115 --> 00:52:00,700 It’s just a fact. 657 00:52:00,784 --> 00:52:05,038 The men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes 658 00:52:05,121 --> 00:52:09,125 and come back and help design and build and test them. 659 00:52:09,209 --> 00:52:11,336 The fact that the women are not in this field 660 00:52:11,419 --> 00:52:13,839 is a fact of our social order. 661 00:52:15,423 --> 00:52:18,677 He said that," If the women can prove they're better than the men, 662 00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:23,682 then we’ll welcome them with open arms to the cheers of the multitude." 663 00:52:24,933 --> 00:52:26,351 Yeah, right. 664 00:52:26,977 --> 00:52:30,063 But if you could find women better qualified than yourself, 665 00:52:30,147 --> 00:52:31,857 how would you welcome them in the program? 666 00:52:34,442 --> 00:52:36,236 They would be very welcome. 667 00:52:37,612 --> 00:52:42,701 Can you imagine a woman flying a jet or flying a dangerous aircraft? 668 00:52:42,784 --> 00:52:45,579 Oh! Goodness gracious, no. 669 00:52:49,332 --> 00:52:53,545 But Jacqueline Cochran had flown the jets. 670 00:52:56,590 --> 00:52:59,301 She’d shattered all kinds of records. 671 00:53:01,511 --> 00:53:05,015 She had access to the jets because her husband, Floyd Odlum, 672 00:53:05,098 --> 00:53:08,393 was building the jets now for the air force. 673 00:53:15,358 --> 00:53:18,403 So she proved that the women could fly the jets. 674 00:53:20,447 --> 00:53:26,286 When it finally came down to the hearing, the congressional hearing, she testified. 675 00:53:27,704 --> 00:53:30,165 Of course, Floyd Odlum and Jackie Cochran 676 00:53:30,248 --> 00:53:33,752 were large supporters of the Lovelace Foundation. 677 00:53:33,835 --> 00:53:35,503 So I didn’t give up hope. 678 00:53:38,423 --> 00:53:39,925 This is great. 679 00:53:43,428 --> 00:53:44,763 Oh, boy. 680 00:53:45,805 --> 00:53:50,060 All right. So I’m reading from the testimony of Jacqueline Cochran. 681 00:53:51,311 --> 00:53:54,272 The manned spaceflights are extremely expensive 682 00:53:54,731 --> 00:53:57,734 and also urgent in the national interests, 683 00:53:57,817 --> 00:54:01,571 and therefore, in selecting astronauts, it was natural and proper 684 00:54:01,655 --> 00:54:05,450 to sift them from the group of male pilots who had already proven, 685 00:54:05,533 --> 00:54:09,579 by aircraft testing and high-speed precision flying, 686 00:54:09,663 --> 00:54:13,041 that they were experienced, competent, and qualified 687 00:54:13,124 --> 00:54:17,170 to meet possible emergencies in a new environment. 688 00:54:18,296 --> 00:54:21,257 From all I have been told by the newspapers, 689 00:54:21,341 --> 00:54:24,177 that we do not want to slow down our program, 690 00:54:25,011 --> 00:54:27,639 and you are going to have to, of necessity, 691 00:54:27,722 --> 00:54:32,227 waste a great deal of money when you take a large group of women in, 692 00:54:32,310 --> 00:54:34,896 because you lose them through marriage. 693 00:54:38,483 --> 00:54:40,318 I find this stunning. 694 00:54:47,575 --> 00:54:51,579 Why? Why had Jacqueline Cochran done this? 695 00:54:54,916 --> 00:54:58,962 She had basically knocked down the women of the space program. 696 00:55:02,132 --> 00:55:04,718 How she stomached it then, I don’t know. 697 00:55:08,138 --> 00:55:10,890 The most shocking thing about the hearings was that 698 00:55:11,558 --> 00:55:14,060 we felt like Jackie turned against us. 699 00:55:14,769 --> 00:55:20,108 Janey and Jerrie counted on Jackie Cochran supporting them. 700 00:55:20,191 --> 00:55:23,403 And Jackie Cochran did not do what they thought she was gonna do. 701 00:55:23,486 --> 00:55:26,156 - That was a shock. Yeah. - Yeah, it was much of a shock. 702 00:55:26,239 --> 00:55:29,784 Jacqueline Cochran sort of… 703 00:55:29,868 --> 00:55:33,163 Now, she had always worked with the military. 704 00:55:35,457 --> 00:55:40,295 And so Jackie was convinced by the brass, by these generals, 705 00:55:40,378 --> 00:55:42,297 if she tried to push this now, 706 00:55:42,380 --> 00:55:46,176 that it was going to have a bad effect on the program. 707 00:55:46,259 --> 00:55:49,387 In fact, it might even stop the program. 708 00:55:50,305 --> 00:55:53,349 Well, I think that’s ludicrous, but she bought in. 709 00:55:55,101 --> 00:55:57,062 And they took my testimony. 710 00:55:57,145 --> 00:56:01,858 I sent it around and got what I was going to say approved 711 00:56:01,941 --> 00:56:03,943 by the chief of staff of the air force, 712 00:56:04,027 --> 00:56:07,781 the chief of naval operations, and the army, 713 00:56:07,864 --> 00:56:10,325 and with a little note that said, This is what I’m gonna say. 714 00:56:10,408 --> 00:56:12,952 But if you don’t agree with it, I’ll try to avoid testifying 715 00:56:13,036 --> 00:56:14,704 and I won’t say anything. 716 00:56:15,371 --> 00:56:18,208 Jackie Cochran was not a feminist. 717 00:56:18,583 --> 00:56:21,920 In my mind, the definition of a feminist 718 00:56:22,003 --> 00:56:26,591 is someone who really champions and promotes women. 719 00:56:27,550 --> 00:56:31,012 Jackie was a champion of Jackie. 720 00:56:31,096 --> 00:56:36,226 I think if Jackie had been one of the 13 in that program, 721 00:56:36,309 --> 00:56:39,646 her entire demeanor, her entire testimony, 722 00:56:39,729 --> 00:56:42,941 and everything that she said in that hearing would have been very different. 723 00:56:48,321 --> 00:56:52,242 After that, Vice President Johnson canceled the program. 724 00:56:53,034 --> 00:56:54,828 The women were doing too well. 725 00:57:00,792 --> 00:57:04,337 There is a classic letter signed by Lyndon Johnson. 726 00:57:05,213 --> 00:57:09,050 And he is the one that said, This program must stop now, 727 00:57:09,634 --> 00:57:10,677 and signed it. 728 00:57:15,807 --> 00:57:18,685 His words were, Stop this now. 729 00:57:22,605 --> 00:57:26,943 Lyndon Johnson supposedly, supposedly, said, 730 00:57:27,026 --> 00:57:29,654 well, you know, women have their periods. 731 00:57:30,405 --> 00:57:32,866 I wish you could put that on a tampon box, 732 00:57:32,949 --> 00:57:36,035 that you can fly, you can fly if you’re having your period. 733 00:57:37,954 --> 00:57:43,209 It was so typical, in that day and age, of men and how they judged women. 734 00:57:44,878 --> 00:57:46,838 There were any number of ways 735 00:57:46,921 --> 00:57:50,049 to keep them from achieving what they wanted to achieve. 736 00:57:57,015 --> 00:58:00,268 I think it had as much to do with the boys not wanting 737 00:58:00,351 --> 00:58:02,604 to have the light taken away from them, 738 00:58:02,687 --> 00:58:06,941 because they were the heroes of our time. 739 00:58:07,025 --> 00:58:12,322 One beautiful woman as an astronaut 740 00:58:12,405 --> 00:58:15,575 would have just dominated the news… 741 00:58:17,285 --> 00:58:20,455 to the extent that the other seven would feel... 742 00:58:20,538 --> 00:58:24,042 What has gone wrong, and where’s my money? 743 00:58:27,921 --> 00:58:33,176 If the gentlemen who denied the Mercury 13 744 00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:37,889 were comfortable in their skin, they would have behaved differently. 745 00:58:37,972 --> 00:58:42,018 But underneath it all, it’s just some little boy who’s afraid. 746 00:58:43,811 --> 00:58:46,397 We all know why it didn’t happen. 747 00:58:46,481 --> 00:58:48,316 And that goes back to this issue of… 748 00:58:50,777 --> 00:58:55,323 uh, just prejudice, good old-fashioned prejudice. 749 00:58:55,406 --> 00:58:59,327 - Of course they were prejudiced. - It was a good old boy network. 750 00:58:59,410 --> 00:59:02,163 And there was no such thing as a good old girl network. 751 00:59:02,247 --> 00:59:06,251 I was disappointed, ’cause I knew I did it well, and... 752 00:59:06,334 --> 00:59:10,421 But they didn’t like that, or they didn’t like any of the people doing it. 753 00:59:10,505 --> 00:59:12,465 So that was the end of that one. 754 00:59:17,762 --> 00:59:23,268 Years, years later, Jackie admitted to me she was embarrassed, 755 00:59:23,351 --> 00:59:24,978 she was regretful… 756 00:59:26,396 --> 00:59:30,316 and somewhat ashamed, and told me so. 757 00:59:42,537 --> 00:59:46,165 In order to beat the Russians to the moon, we first have to catch up with them. 758 00:59:46,249 --> 00:59:47,792 When do you think this might happen, 759 00:59:47,875 --> 00:59:50,753 and what do you expect their next space mission to be? 760 00:59:50,837 --> 00:59:53,256 A little difficult to pinpoint where we stand in a race 761 00:59:53,339 --> 00:59:57,051 when the opposition does everything under cloak-and-dagger type secrecy, 762 00:59:57,135 --> 01:00:00,805 where we don’t know what they’re doing. You don’t know what you’re racing against. 763 01:00:00,888 --> 01:00:03,766 You don’t have any idea, their mission? Supposed to be one quite soon. 764 01:00:03,850 --> 01:00:09,063 None at all. I have no secret information other than what I read in the newspapers. 765 01:00:27,624 --> 01:00:28,791 Valentina, 766 01:00:29,375 --> 01:00:33,796 although she was Russian and we wished the first one would have been American, 767 01:00:34,464 --> 01:00:36,758 she still helped the program. 768 01:00:42,764 --> 01:00:47,101 It was a bold move to climb into one of those vehicles 769 01:00:47,185 --> 01:00:51,898 and shoot up into space and then see what happens next. 770 01:01:11,709 --> 01:01:14,253 Valentina was a sport parachutist. 771 01:01:16,005 --> 01:01:19,384 We would rather have seen a pilot selected. 772 01:01:20,510 --> 01:01:23,930 But the fact that they had a woman going into space, 773 01:01:24,389 --> 01:01:29,435 that was a breakthrough, and, uh, we-we admired her very much. 774 01:01:37,610 --> 01:01:41,572 It was a huge propaganda victory for the Russians again. 775 01:01:42,073 --> 01:01:45,785 B just sat there and thought how stupid these men were. 776 01:02:02,301 --> 01:02:05,179 The Russians have put up a woman cosmonaut. 777 01:02:05,596 --> 01:02:07,515 Is there any room in our space programs 778 01:02:07,598 --> 01:02:10,309 for a woman astronaut, in your opinion, sir? 779 01:02:10,810 --> 01:02:13,354 Well, we could have used a woman on the... 780 01:02:14,105 --> 01:02:19,902 on the second... actually, the second orbital Mercury-Atlas that we had. 781 01:02:19,986 --> 01:02:23,322 We could have put a woman up, the same type of woman, 782 01:02:23,406 --> 01:02:26,367 and flown her instead of the chimpanzee. 783 01:02:26,451 --> 01:02:28,661 Now... 784 01:02:32,206 --> 01:02:36,002 Mother was really angry. Really angry. Yeah. 785 01:02:38,254 --> 01:02:41,674 Yes, she was. And stayed that way, actually. 786 01:02:43,885 --> 01:02:45,970 This termination of this program 787 01:02:46,053 --> 01:02:49,140 began to move her in the direction of being radicalized. 788 01:02:51,267 --> 01:02:56,731 Mother was one of the very first founding members of NOW, 789 01:02:56,814 --> 01:02:58,900 the National Organization of Women. 790 01:03:00,026 --> 01:03:02,987 She’d been invited as a result of the hearings. 791 01:03:05,072 --> 01:03:08,367 She hammered on women’s rights day and night, 792 01:03:08,451 --> 01:03:10,077 week after week, month after month, 793 01:03:10,161 --> 01:03:14,832 almost, um, just to the point of, Here she goes again. 794 01:04:16,978 --> 01:04:19,981 That’s one small step for a woman… 795 01:04:22,066 --> 01:04:24,986 one giant leap for womankind. 796 01:04:30,992 --> 01:04:35,079 You’ve only got 15 minutes before we want you driving back to the LEM, over. 797 01:04:36,038 --> 01:04:37,081 Okay. 798 01:04:38,165 --> 01:04:41,586 We’ll get to work. Sarah, we need to sample here. 799 01:04:41,669 --> 01:04:45,214 Going to the moon was one of those points in the ’60s 800 01:04:45,298 --> 01:04:48,843 where there was something we could all share with pride. 801 01:04:48,926 --> 01:04:52,722 It’s a great ride. Steering’s a little tricky though. 802 01:04:52,805 --> 01:04:57,351 But imagine how much more telling and significant it would have been 803 01:04:57,435 --> 01:04:59,979 to have a woman step onto the moon. 804 01:05:15,536 --> 01:05:18,789 It was a very seriously missed opportunity. 805 01:05:19,415 --> 01:05:22,627 This really could have changed lives hugely. 806 01:05:22,710 --> 01:05:26,339 Not just in terms of, you know, little girls getting engineering degrees, 807 01:05:26,422 --> 01:05:29,508 but moving into positions of real power… 808 01:05:30,927 --> 01:05:35,890 implementing practices and policies that might have represented 809 01:05:35,973 --> 01:05:39,727 that humanitarian component of woman, 810 01:05:39,810 --> 01:05:42,521 you know, as opposed to the bellicose boys. 811 01:05:51,572 --> 01:05:55,409 It would have had an amazing, positive impact… 812 01:05:56,869 --> 01:05:59,080 empowering women in general, 813 01:05:59,163 --> 01:06:01,832 and overcoming this notion 814 01:06:01,916 --> 01:06:06,295 that women cannot do what men do in this country. 815 01:06:18,766 --> 01:06:20,893 I would have liked to have walked on the moon. 816 01:06:24,230 --> 01:06:28,859 I would have loved to have put the American flag into the crust of the moon… 817 01:06:32,196 --> 01:06:33,739 and saluted it… 818 01:06:36,158 --> 01:06:40,246 pick up a few rocks, and boy, those rocks are worth a lot today… 819 01:06:43,332 --> 01:06:46,711 and do the assignments that had to be done. 820 01:06:46,794 --> 01:06:48,295 I would’ve loved it. 821 01:06:50,589 --> 01:06:54,552 I could’ve walked on it. I could’ve kicked it out. I could’ve made dust. 822 01:06:55,636 --> 01:06:57,596 Because I know the guys did. 823 01:06:59,265 --> 01:07:01,350 I could’ve done anything they did. 824 01:07:27,585 --> 01:07:32,673 I grew up in Elmira, New York, and the interesting thing about Elmira is 825 01:07:32,757 --> 01:07:35,551 it’s the location of the National Soaring Museum. 826 01:07:35,634 --> 01:07:38,345 So when I was a child, I’d watch the gliders take off and land. 827 01:07:38,763 --> 01:07:41,807 And I wondered, What would it be like if I was up there? 828 01:07:43,100 --> 01:07:46,270 So I started thinking as a child that maybe I could fly someday. 829 01:07:50,024 --> 01:07:53,486 As I got older, I decided I wanted to be an astronaut. 830 01:07:55,112 --> 01:07:59,116 But I don’t remember thinking, I can’t do this because I’m not a man. 831 01:07:59,200 --> 01:08:02,284 It was more like, Well, I’m going to be an astronaut, 832 01:08:02,309 --> 01:08:04,269 and I’ll just be a woman astronaut. 833 01:08:19,136 --> 01:08:23,766 The air force opened flight training to women in 1976. 834 01:08:25,184 --> 01:08:28,562 I was in the first class of women pilots in the air force 835 01:08:28,646 --> 01:08:30,314 that went right out of college. 836 01:08:30,773 --> 01:08:32,149 And we were in a test program. 837 01:08:33,901 --> 01:08:38,155 So we just knew if we had failed, 838 01:08:38,239 --> 01:08:40,116 that then women wouldn’t continue to fly. 839 01:08:45,329 --> 01:08:47,123 So I tried very, very hard. 840 01:08:47,206 --> 01:08:52,253 I wasn’t gonna date anybody. I wasn’t gonna have a crazy social life. 841 01:08:52,878 --> 01:08:56,257 Because it was so important to me to be the best pilot I could be. 842 01:09:06,100 --> 01:09:09,520 I loved the air force. Absolutely loved it. 843 01:09:13,149 --> 01:09:16,193 But I never told anyone I wanted to be an astronaut… 844 01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:20,614 because I knew they were gonna tell me I couldn’t do it. 845 01:09:28,330 --> 01:09:29,415 I was out flying. 846 01:09:31,000 --> 01:09:32,835 I came back to the squadron… 847 01:09:34,378 --> 01:09:36,714 and there was a yellow note hanging on the bulletin board. 848 01:09:36,797 --> 01:09:38,716 And it said: "Call NASA". 849 01:09:40,176 --> 01:09:43,345 I go, This is it. They’re gonna tell me if I’m in or out. 850 01:09:44,597 --> 01:09:46,515 John Young answered the phone. 851 01:09:46,974 --> 01:09:51,228 He was an astronaut who walked on the moon during the Apollo program. 852 01:09:52,188 --> 01:09:55,900 The first thing he said to me was, "Do you still want to be an astronaut?" 853 01:09:55,983 --> 01:09:57,359 I said," Uh…" 854 01:09:59,653 --> 01:10:00,571 yes. 855 01:10:00,654 --> 01:10:04,408 So he went through this whole long narrative about what I was gonna do 856 01:10:04,491 --> 01:10:06,931 at Johnson Space Center. He said," Do you have any questions?" 857 01:10:06,994 --> 01:10:10,080 I said, "Yes. Am I gonna be a pilot or a mission specialist?" 858 01:10:10,164 --> 01:10:11,999 And he said, "You’re gonna be a pilot." 859 01:10:12,082 --> 01:10:15,294 You’re gonna be the first woman to pilot the space shuttle. 860 01:10:21,175 --> 01:10:22,384 Thanks. 861 01:10:23,844 --> 01:10:26,931 Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton, 862 01:10:27,014 --> 01:10:28,974 and Administrator Goldin, 863 01:10:29,058 --> 01:10:33,062 I just can’t tell you how much of an honor it is for me to be here today. 864 01:10:33,145 --> 01:10:37,483 I also think it’s important that I point out that I didn’t get here alone. 865 01:10:39,235 --> 01:10:42,571 There’s so many women throughout this century 866 01:10:42,655 --> 01:10:45,991 that have gone before me and have taken to the skies. 867 01:10:46,492 --> 01:10:49,119 Um, from the first barnstormers, 868 01:10:49,203 --> 01:10:51,830 through the women air force... 869 01:10:51,914 --> 01:10:55,626 The women military air force service pilots from World War II, 870 01:10:55,709 --> 01:10:58,671 the Mercury women from back in the early 1960s 871 01:10:58,754 --> 01:11:01,966 that went through the... All the tough medical testing. 872 01:11:02,049 --> 01:11:05,135 All these women have been my role models and my inspiration, 873 01:11:05,219 --> 01:11:07,012 and I couldn’t be here today without them, 874 01:11:07,096 --> 01:11:09,682 and I’d like to say a special thank-you to them. 875 01:11:11,308 --> 01:11:14,520 The Mercury 13 women are heroes of mine. 876 01:11:14,603 --> 01:11:17,022 We all had this bond because we were all pilots. 877 01:11:18,357 --> 01:11:20,708 So I invited all of them to my launch. 878 01:11:20,864 --> 01:11:23,867 Well, when NASA found out what was going on, who these women were, 879 01:11:23,911 --> 01:11:27,874 NASA took them off of my list and put them on the VIP list. 880 01:11:43,841 --> 01:11:47,845 When Eileen Collins went up, uh, I got a call, 881 01:11:47,928 --> 01:11:50,347 and she invited me to come to the launch. 882 01:11:56,520 --> 01:11:59,106 They had a press conference or whatever, 883 01:11:59,189 --> 01:12:04,695 where they have the astronauts up on a stage in this large hall. 884 01:12:06,030 --> 01:12:09,867 They had Eileen take the microphone. 885 01:12:10,868 --> 01:12:12,911 Before she did anything else, she said, 886 01:12:12,995 --> 01:12:16,290 "I would like to recognize the Mercury 13." 887 01:12:18,834 --> 01:12:22,129 And she pointed to them. She said, "Would you please stand up?" 888 01:12:22,212 --> 01:12:24,256 And then she read the names. 889 01:12:26,050 --> 01:12:27,676 And then she said, 890 01:12:27,760 --> 01:12:31,847 "If it were not for the Mercury 13, I would not be here today." 891 01:12:38,479 --> 01:12:43,400 They were very gracious and outgoing to us, and could not have been nicer. 892 01:12:43,484 --> 01:12:46,362 But I will never forget that, when all those astronauts 893 01:12:46,445 --> 01:12:48,364 stood up and clapped for us. 894 01:12:54,244 --> 01:12:57,623 We have booster ignition and liftoff of Columbia, 895 01:12:57,706 --> 01:13:00,918 reaching new heights for women and X-ray astronomy. 896 01:13:03,587 --> 01:13:07,257 This is Columbia. In the roll, we’ve got a fuel cell… number one. 897 01:13:07,758 --> 01:13:10,010 Roger roll, Columbia. We’re looking at it. 898 01:13:11,470 --> 01:13:15,265 And so that had a lot of meaning for us, to get to know Eileen, 899 01:13:15,349 --> 01:13:18,394 and especially to go watch her head out into the sky. 900 01:13:21,105 --> 01:13:23,899 Just love it, thinking, She’s in the driver’s seat. 901 01:13:25,025 --> 01:13:27,861 That woman is in the driver’s seat. 902 01:13:32,950 --> 01:13:37,538 We felt redeemed, like our mission had not been in vain. 903 01:13:38,539 --> 01:13:42,459 We started people thinking that, Yes, women can do this. 904 01:13:42,543 --> 01:13:46,213 And, Houston, what you’re seeing is the actual moment of deploy there, 905 01:13:46,296 --> 01:13:50,300 when we take the switch to deploy, and it’s so quiet... 906 01:13:50,384 --> 01:13:53,470 When I talk about the future of space exploration, 907 01:13:53,554 --> 01:13:56,515 one of the things I tell young people nowadays is, 908 01:13:57,015 --> 01:13:59,852 Of the 12 people that walked on the moon, they were all men. 909 01:13:59,935 --> 01:14:03,188 But that was a function of the culture that we had in the world 910 01:14:03,272 --> 01:14:04,940 back in the 1960s. 911 01:14:05,315 --> 01:14:08,235 You can be the first woman to walk on the moon 912 01:14:08,318 --> 01:14:12,030 if you wanna be an astronaut. That’s the message I tell young people. 913 01:14:12,114 --> 01:14:15,117 Maybe the first person to walk on Mars will be a woman. 914 01:14:19,663 --> 01:14:22,458 We got Eileen. We got all the girls. 915 01:14:22,541 --> 01:14:25,752 A lot of ’em are engineers. Some are pilots. 916 01:14:28,505 --> 01:14:31,592 This is what I speak to the youngsters today: 917 01:14:32,593 --> 01:14:36,054 Get into the STEM program. Get your engineering degree. 918 01:14:36,555 --> 01:14:37,764 Go with NASA. 919 01:14:38,932 --> 01:14:42,436 And get yourself into space. Get yourself into flying. 920 01:14:42,519 --> 01:14:45,439 Be an airline pilot. Be a flight instructor. 921 01:14:46,106 --> 01:14:49,568 If that’s what you wanna be, do it. ’Cause that’s what I love.