Jeff Bezos, like Richard Branson before him a little over a week ago, may be showing off his ego and vast (and largely untaxed) fortune by launching himself and three others on Blue Origin’s New Shepard Rocket to the edge of space on the 52nd Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing.
But he can also be credited with rectifying a close to 60-year historical injustice by inviting 82-year-old Wally Funk to be one of the four passengers on the ride.
Who is Wally Funk?
Other than making history today (July 20, 2021) by becoming the oldest woman in space, she is one of 13 women who participated in most of the same physical and psychological tests under the supervision of Dr. William Randolph Lovelace, as the original seven Mercury Astronauts.
Lovelace was the physician responsible for overseeing the medical and psychological tests on the seven Mercury Astronauts.
These 13 women would, in the 1990s, earn the nickname The Mercury 13.
Funk was the youngest of 13 veteran female pilots (including Myrtle Cagle, Jerrie Cobb, Janet Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Sarah Gorelick, Jane “Janey” Briggs Hart, Jean Hixson, Rhea Woltman, Gene Nora Stumbough, Irene Leverton, Jerri Sloan, and
Bernice Steadman,) whose performance on these tests equaled and in some cases surpassed the Mercury Seven Astronauts.
Unfortunately, despite the desire of the 13 accomplished female pilots to join N.A.S.A.’s astronaut ranks and the fact that the Soviet Union had no problem launching their own rocket with the first woman astronaut (Valentina Tereshkova in 1963,) none of these ladies were accepted into the space program.
Why?
Male Chauvinism and Double Standards.
N.A.S.A. mandated that all their early astronauts had to be test pilots on military jets. While all the women of the Mercury 13 were pilots that had logged in several thousand hours of flight time, none were as test pilots.
One of the Mercury Seven, Gordon Cooper, told a room of laughing reporters, that they could have used a woman astronaut instead of a chimpanzee pilot on one of the earlier rocket test flights.
When Jerrie Cobb and Jane Hart led the way in testifying before Congress on the desire to join the Astronaut program, they were pushed back by noted figures such as Mercury Astronauts John Glenn (who said women astronauts were against the “social order” and Scott Carpenter, an elder statesman among female pilots Jackie Cochran (who did not like Cobb and may have been jealous not to be part of the 13,) and Vice President Lyndon Johnson (who in commenting on a memo advocating women astronauts, wrote “Let’s stop this now.”)
Fortunately, future female shuttle pilots/astronauts like the first woman shuttle commander, Eileen Collins, have acknowledged the part the Mercury 13 played in shaping the space program and their careers.
Over the last several years, many books have been written about the Mercury 13.
A documentary on their testing and fight to become part of the space program has been released by Netflix.
May the days of ignoring the efforts of the Mercury 13 and their pursuit of the American Dream in American History classes end.
All children should learn about these 13 extraordinary women and how they helped make it possible for their successors to explore the stars.
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Funny video, Sharpie. I love this (made up) quote: “Stay there, please.” Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife who is all of us.
Yeah, Bezos has been on the TV explaining that this “space tourism” is really the first step that will eventually lead us to moving all our heavy industry off-planet. That will save the Earth but may take hundreds of years. So, as it turns out, he is more than a multi-billionaire with toys that cost billions of dollars. He is actually a visionary who is dedicated to the future of the Earth. And he did mention that there are present day problems on Earth such as poverty that need to worked on, but we also must work on the future and that’s what he’s doing.
Ah Monsieur Sharpie…Tres bien! Tres bien!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dibFNiCLsgg
Hey David, nothing but respect and gratitude for the work you all do here, you know that, and I am happy for Wally Funk. Really.
But I know the reason she’s there is to make Bezos look like less of a creep and a monster, and to distract from the fact that his money could be put to better use.
And the reason he picked her is because she beat out the paraplegic Girl Scout and the 9/11 first responder because the focus group liked her back story better.
I really am happy for Wally Funk, she’s an actual American hero, but too many people believe the things they see on cable news and FaceBook and that’s why we’re all at each other all the time.
The reason why things are the way they are matters.
Well said, Sharpie.
All that ego maniacs Branson and Bezos have really accomplished is to show us what they can do with incomprehensible wealth when they choose not to do good with it.
They can take joy rides in “space.” Woo hoo.
Hi Everyone Let us not lose sight that the article is about saluting Wally Funk and the Mercury 13. Branson and Bezos are only mentioned once in the article.
Yep, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkovak orbited the earth back in the early 1960’s, America didn’t send Sally Ride up until the 1980’s.
The irony is that if humans ever need to leave this planet to save the species, there won’t be a lot of us dudes on the flight.
If you want to save the human race from a dying Earth, you send the smartest, fittest women to the next best space rock.
Our manly “contribution” would be in a frozen state for later use.
Maybe sent two of us along as a backup plan, but we’re not really needed.
Sorry gents, we’re the “red shirts”.
Also, no one really went into space today. Nor did they last week.
I grew up with the Mercury and Apollo programs, I had models of Saturn V’s and LEM’s in my childhood bedroom. I stayed up way past my bedtime when I was nine years old to watch Neil Armstrong take a walk around the moon. I watched every launch and every splashdown.
What we saw this past month was a couple of billionaire ego maniacs in a pissing match.
They barely touched “space”, and they didn’t orbit squat.
Good for Wally, but this was all PR (I used to work for Branson, he’s all about image) and two big egos on their expensive amusement park rides.