By 1960, Cobb had set world aviation records for speed, distance, and altitude flying in Aero Commander airplanes. BIOGRAPHY. She was a semi-professional softball player for the Oklahoma City Queens, where she saved enough money to buy a World War II surplus Fairchild PT23. Cobb, a pioneering female pilot, was a member of the Mercury 13, a group of women who were able to . The women became known as the Mercury 13. I couldnt reach the pedals, so I just played around with the stick and it was just marvelous. Then, the training moved to psychological exams. Cobb used her softball earnings to buy a plane. Thats the question director Giovanna Sardelli hopes audiences will ask after seeing They Promised Her the Moon at The Old Globe. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/sch01647/catalog Accessed May 01, 2023. Prior to the lady astronauts, no women had qualified for astronaut training by NASAs standard. This series also includes the evaluation of Cobb's astronaut test results (#2.8), summary of Cobb's test results (#2.10), and transcript of the hearing with Cobb and Hart before the House Subcommittee in 1962 (#2.13). Former Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova and U.S. astronaut Cady Coleman (right), together before Coleman's 2010 launch to space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan. [5], She gained her Private Pilot's license at the age of 17 and her Commercial Pilot's license on her 18th birthday. SD.1), includes extensive clippings, correspondence, writings, photographs, press releases, t-shirts, and printed materials documenting Cobb's role in the space program, her astronaut training, her flying career, and her work in the Amazon. Cobbs aviation years were bookends to her quest to be an astronaut. Of the Mercury 7 astronauts, John Glenn had the most flight experience at a total of 5,100 hours. - Informationen zum Thema Jerrie Cobb NASA space pilot woman pilot female pilot Mercury 13 Amazon", National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Cobb, Geraldyn M. "Jerrie", https://www.thoughtco.com/errie-cobb-3072207, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerrie_Cobb&oldid=1143859765, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma alumni, Classen School of Advanced Studies alumni, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles having same image on Wikidata and Wikipedia, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from NASA, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Named Pilot of the Year by the National Pilots Association, Fourth American to be awarded Gold Wings of the, Honored by the government of Ecuador for pioneering new air routes over the Andes Mountains and Andes jungle, 1962 Received the Golden Plate Award of the, Received Pioneer Woman Award for her "courageous frontier spirit" flying all over the. Please note that the Schlesinger Librarys manuscript collections cannot yet be requested directly from the finding aid. She was the first to complete each of the tests. [1], Born on March 5, 1931, in Norman, Oklahoma,[2] Cobb was the daughter of Lt. Col. William H. Cobb and Helena Butler Stone Cobb. Ultimately, 13 of these women surpassed every requirement in the first round of testing (some with better scores than the more famous "Mercury Seven"). United States Information Agency/PhotoQuest/Getty ImagesJerrie Cobb spent much of her life in the cockpit of a plane, where she racked up twice as many flight hours as astronaut John Glenn. Photographs, clippings, and correspondence of Jerrie Cobb, an aviator, Mercury 13 astronaut, and advocate of women's participation in the space program. Born: 5 March 1931 in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. American pilot Jerrie Cobb hoped to be "the first Western woman in space," according to an interview she gave to CBC's Take 30 back in September 1963. Jerrie Cobb, Janey Hart (a fellow FLAT), aviator Jacqueline Cochran, NASA's deputy administrator George Low, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter testified before Congress on July 17 and 18, 1962, a year before Gordon Cooper flew on the final Mercury flight. Jerrie Cobb spent much of her life in the cockpit of a plane, where she racked up twice as many flight hours as astronaut John Glenn. Two years before sex discrimination became illegal, subcommittee hearings of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics showed how ideas about womens rights permeated political discourse even before they were enshrined in law. When NASA announced in 1998 that Sen. John H. Glenn would fly in space for a second time as a part of a space shuttle mission, women pilots who already knew the story of Cobbs work promoting Lovelaces testing started a grassroots campaign to Send Jerrie into Space. Although she never got her shot at spaceflight, Cobbs significance lay, not only in her efforts for the United States to include a woman in spaceflights, but also in her pioneering career in aviation. Jerrie Cobb by her jet fighter in 1961. Other tests examined their lung capacity and endurance. Daughter of Lt. Col. William H. and Helena Butler Stone Cobb, Jerrie Cobb grew up in an aviation-oriented environment. The freedom was just marvelous. - Jerrie Cobb, reflecting on a flight with her father in 1943. In addition, the humanitarian unit of We All Fly, a forthcoming general aviation gallery at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, (following our current renovation) will display a Cobb hammock, flight equipment, and wooden bird and animal figures, hand-carved gifts of Amazonian indigenous people. Los Angeles, CA, March 11, 2021 Did you know that women make up half of the U.S. college-educated workforce, but only 28 percent make careers in science and engineering? From birth, Cobb was on the move as is the case for many children of military families. Although Cobb garnered public support for her mission, NASA once again did not provide Cobb with the opportunity for space flight. She was a bush pilot in missionary endeavors in the Amazon for the next forty years and established the Jerrie Cobb Foundation, Inc. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1981 for her work with the native people of the Amazon and was later the recipient of the Amelia Earhart Award and Medal. In February 1960, Jerrie Cobb began astronaut tests. In the early 1960s, the space race heated up. On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures. We rely on the generous support of donors, sponsors, members, and other benefactors to share the history and impact of aviation and spaceflight, educate the public, and inspire future generations. She hopes that audiences will relate to Cobb as an individual, even removed from the greater context of the fight for womens equality. Since no women could meet these requirements due to being excluded from such service in the military, none qualified to become astronauts. [6][20] In 1981, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work. https://www.wsj.com/articles/jerrie-cobb-passed-astronaut-tests-but-nasa-kept-her-out-of-space-11557498600. At 22, she flew for an airplane delivery service and returned to Ponca City as a test pilot in 1955. Unfortunately, Jackie Cochran, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and George Low all testified that including women in the Mercury Project or creating a special program for them would be a detriment to the space program. Genevieve Carlton earned a Ph.D in history from Northwestern University with a focus on early modern Europe and the history of science and medicine before becoming a history professor at the University of Louisville. "Its a really important, inspiring story," Sardelli says. ", She wrote in her 1997 autobiography "Jerrie Cobb, Solo Pilot," "My country, my culture, was not ready to allow a woman to fly in space.". He invited Ollstein to the Powers New Voices Festival in January 2018 to produce the play as a reading, matching her with director Giovanna Sardelli, who had spent time looking for a womens history story and was immediately intrigued by the hook, as she puts it: "What happens to somebody when theyre not allowed to live up to their potential?". "I would give my life to fly in space, I really would," Cobb told The Associated Press at age 67 in 1998. [4] At 16, she was barnstorming around the Great Plains in a Piper J-3 Cub, dropping leaflets over little towns announcing the arrival of circuses. In 1953, Cobb worked for Fleetway, Inc., ferrying war surplus aircraft to other countries, including to the Peruvian Air Force. But Jacqueline Cochran, the record-setting aviatrix who had funded the Lovelace tests, testified against continuing the program at that time . Instead, the agency focused on test and fighter pilots, roles that were denied to women, no matter how well they could fly. NASA did see a potential role for women in space, however. "Jerrie Cobb, Record-Breaking Pilot and Advocate for Female Spaceflight, Has Died", "Jerrie Cobb, Solo Pilot" (Autobiography), Internet Encyclopedia of Science, Aviation Pioneers, "Astronaut Jerrie Cobb, The Mercury 13 Were NASA's First Women Astronauts", "America's 1st Female Astronaut Candidate, Jerrie Cobb, dies", "Jerrie Cobb Poses beside Mercury Capsule", Qualifications for Astronauts: Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on the Selection of Astronauts, "Why Did the Mercury 13 Astronauts Never Fly in Space? They were:Jerrie Cobb, Myrtle "K" Cagle, Jan Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Wally Funk, Jean Hixson, Irene Leverton, Sarah Gorelick [Ratley], Jane B. Hart, Rhea Hurrle [Woltman], Jerri Sloan [Truhill], Gene Nora Stumbough [Jessen], and Bernice "B" Trimble Steadman. The tests were exhaustive, even harrowingelectric shocks to test reflexes, ice water shot into the ear canal to induce vertigo, an isolation tank, a four-hour eye exam, daily enemas, a throat tube to test their stomach acid, countless X-rays. NASA never flew another elderly person in space, male or female. News Negative Space In the 1960s, 13 who passed the rigorous tests for space flight were grounded because of their gender. Jerrie Cobb's father taught her to fly a biplane at age twelve and by age sixteen she was flying the Piper J-3 Cub, a popular light aircraft. Cobb and Lovelace were assisted in their efforts by Jacqueline Cochran, who was a famous American aviatrix and an old friend of Lovelace's. In 1962 Cobb, with fellow Mercury 13 astronaut Jane Hart, testified at a Congressional hearing about allowing American women to fly into space, but the American space program's astronaut corps would remain closed to women until 1978. The Subcommittee expressed sympathy but did not rule on the question. Test E Giochi Matematici Test Attitudinali E Giochi Logico . Ollstein hopes audiences will leave her play with a sense of how hard these women fought, and how many of their stories are lost. A 1971 NASA report declared, The question of direct sexual release on a long-duration space mission must be considered It is possible that a woman, qualified from a scientific viewpoint, might be persuaded to donate her time and energies for the sake of improving crew morale.. Jerrie Cobb was Americas first woman to complete astronaut training and qualify for space flight. ", "Girl Cosmonaut Ridicules Praying of U.S. Woman Pilot", "The Space Review: You've come a long way, baby! Its photo gallery FAQ states that all of the images in the photo . Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository. "Its not the same way men talk about it. (Notably, the 1964 Civil Rights Act making sex discrimination illegal was still two years away.) We seek, only, a place in our nations space future without discrimination, she told a special House subcommittee on the selection of astronauts. Lovelace and Flickinger broke off from NASA and formed the Women in Space Program (WISP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the help of another historic woman aviator, Jackie Cochran, the co-founder of the WWII WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program. Died: 18 March 2019 in Florida, United States, aged 88. Jerrie Cobb undergoing physiological testing (NASA). [22] Many aviators and astronauts of the time believed this was a failed chance for NASA to right a wrong they had made years before. In the late 1950s, Dr. Randy Lovelace and General Donald Flickinger of the Air Force heard about how the Soviet Union was planning to send women cosmonauts into space. Lovelace and Flickinger wanted to implement a similar testing program in the U.S., but NASA was already committed to using male military test pilots for astronaut testing. It took 15 years before the next U.S. women were selected to go to space, and the Soviets didn't fly another female for nearly 20 years after Tereshkova's flight. The series chronicles the course of Cobb's professional life, highlighting her achievements as a pilot and astronaut particularly from the perspective of others, such as reporters, the public, friends, and colleagues. One of the committee members noted that the Mercury astronauts were all jet test pilots, while few of the FLATs had jet time. Born on March 5, 1931, in Norman, Oklahoma, Cobb was the daughter of Lt. Col. William H. Cobb and Helena Butler Stone Cobb.From birth, Cobb was on the move as is the case for many children of military families. In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing. None of the Mercury 13 ever reached space, despite Cobb's testimony in 1962 before a Congressional panel. WWII, Thank you to Alaska Airlines for sponsoring this episode of the Flight Deck Podcast. I would then, and I will now.. Ace pilots. Episode four of the first season, "Prime Crew", is dedicated to her memory.[26]. Geraldyn Jerrie Cobb, who died in March 2019, will likely be remembered for her role campaigning for women to be considered as possible space travelers in the beginning of the space age, but the Museums upcoming exhibits will also showcase how important she was as an award-winning pilot who flew for years as a missionary in the Amazon. They were: Expecting the next round of tests to be the first step in training which could conceivably allow them to become astronaut trainees, several of the women quit their jobs in order to be able to go. Sleeping under the Cub's wing at night, she helped scrape together money for fuel to practice her flying by giving rides. When Lovelace and Flickinger told her about the idea of including women in an astronaut testing program, Cobb couldnt say yes fast enough! Cobb never reached her ultimate goal of space flight. Their reasons were practical rather than political: women tended to handle stress better, weigh less, consume less oxygen and use less energy than men, making them great test subjects for spaceflight. Ten of the 12 were men, and all but one of those a war veteran. She should have gone to space, but turned her life into one of service with grace, tweeted Ellen Stofan, director of the Smithsonian Institutions National Air and Space Museum and a former NASA scientist. Cobb served for decades as a humanitarian aid pilot in the Amazon jungle. ", Based out of LA, Ollstein has been present in San Diego throughout development, and is still rewriting in the room. In 1963, Jerrie Cobb and the Mercury 13 watched as the Soviets sent the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, to space. (Image credit: NASA) Jerrie Cobb, the first woman to pass . Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb, the first woman to pass NASA's astronaut training, has died. By 1964, Cobb left NASA and spent the next fifty years operating an airlift service to indigenous peoples in remote areas of the Amazon. It failed. The Mercury 13: The women who trained for space flight until NASA shut them down, Right stuff, wrong gender the true story of the women who almost went to the moon, CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices. 2022 The Museum of Flight - All Rights Reserved. Materials include clippings; photographs; correspondence; screenplays based on her life; certificates; flying charts; color slides; videotapes; t-shirts; etc. That changed when Dr. William Randolph "Randy" Lovelace II invited pilot Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb to undergo the physical fitness testing regimen that he had helped to develop to select the original U.S. astronauts, the "Mercury Seven." The bulk of the materials consists of television interviews and profiles of Cobb as well as other Mercury 13 pilots when they achieved public attention around the time of John Glenn's return to space on the Shuttle Discovery mission in 1998. By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cobb and Jane Hart testified about the women's successes. Cobb at the Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility. The trip lasted a total of 29 days, 11 hours, and 59 minutes. When Lovelace announced Cobbs success at a 1960 conference in Stockholm, Sweden, she immediately became the subject of media coverage. "You learn so much that when you put together the show, youre very specific about what each character brings to the table," Sardelli says. In total, 68 percent of the lady astronauts passed, where only 56 percent of the male trainees passed. The Mercury 13 were thirteen American women who took part in a privately funded program run by William Randolph Lovelace II aiming to test and screen women for spaceflight.The participantsFirst Lady Astronaut Trainees (or FLATs) as Jerrie Cobb called themsuccessfully underwent the same physiological screening tests as had the astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959, for Project Mercury. When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Shortly before they were scheduled to report, the women received telegrams canceling the Pensacola testing. Cobb first flew in an aircraft at age twelve, in her father's open cockpit 1936 Waco biplane. They can't . But when pilot Jerrie Cobb petitioned for the space agency to accept female astronaut trainees like her, she was shut down. [6] As a NASA historian wrote: Although she never flew in space, Cobb, along with twenty-four other women, underwent physical tests similar to those taken by the Mercury astronauts with the belief that she might become an astronaut trainee. COBB, GERALDYN M. (1931-2019). She was also part of the Mercury 13, a group of women who underwent physiological screening tests at the same time as the original Mercury Seven astronauts. Topics: By now, Cobb wasnt the only woman taking the astronaut test, 19 women joined in total. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/mercury-13-first-lady-astronaut-trainees-3073474. After graduating from Oklahoma Citys Classen High School, she spent one year at the Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha, Oklahoma (now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma). Cobb was the first among twelve other women trainees to pass the training exercises. our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. Now, there's a campaign to put one of them -- Jerry Cobb -- into orbit. One newspaper described her as a pretty 29-year-old miss who would probably take high heels along on her first space flight if given the chance. Another printed her weight and measurements, stating, The lady space cadet is five-feet, seven inches tall, weighs 121 pounds, and measures 36-26-34.. On March 19, 1964, Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock and The Spirit of Columbus, her 1953 Cessna 180 single-engine monoplane, took off from Columbus, Ohio. Cobb respected indigenous cultures, offering aid during times of sickness or floods, suggestions to aid their precarious existence in the rainforest, and conversations of faith. NASA never flew another elderly person in space, male or female. [2] John Glenn's main purpose on his space flight was to observe the effects of a micro-gravity environment on the body of an aged individual.
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