Right Qualifications, “Wrong” Body
In 1963, the Soviet Union had another important space “first.” Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space on the Vostok 6 mission. It’s not that NASA hadn’t thought of the possibility of including women on the Mercury missions. As the Mercury 7 were training for their first flights, NASA was simultaneously putting thirteen qualified women through astronaut training. They, too, were skilled pilots. They took – and passed – the Mercury physical tests. But an action by the United States congress prevented them from participating in the early missions, sticking to the “men only” rule, and never flew the skilled women. Despite their reliance on women like Katherine Johnson and other great scientific minds on the ground, NASA wouldn’t put a woman in space until 1983, when astronaut Sally Ride flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger.