It took the U.S. 2 decades to catch up
Astronaut Epps’ situation brings to light the struggles, but also successes, of women in NASA
When NASA last week removed Jeanette Epps from an upcoming mission to the space station, they replaced her with another woman — a choice that isn’t uncommon in today’s day and age.
But it wasn’t that long ago that women, especially American women, were considered unfit for space. In fact, the Soviet Union sent a woman into space two decades before the United States.
America’s space exploration kicked off in 1959 with the announcement of the Mercury Seven, America’s first astronaut corps. The corps was strictly male, and because astronauts were required to be military jet test pilots — a job not open to females — women didn’t even have a chance to apply, according to a July article on the History Channel’s website.
Some experts at the time believed women would be better suited for space travel because they typically were lighter, shorter and more resistant to radiation, according to the website.
Those experts, including NASA scientist Dr. Randy Lovelace, recruited two dozen women — starting with Jerrie Cobb, who had logged 10,000 hours in the cockpit by 1960, twice that of Mercury astronaut John Glenn — to be part of a secret women-in-space program known as the First Lady Astronaut Trainees, according to NASA.
Lovelace conducted the official Mercury program physicals and administered the tests at his private clinic. The program wasn’t sanctioned by NASA and was shuttered when the space agency discovered its existence.
According to a March 2005 post on NASA’s website, “women like these encourage those of all ages to go above and beyond their present circumstances and serve as role models to empower future leaders.”
The women battled for their right to fly, taking the matter to Congress not long after John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. He entered the discussion, arguing to Congress that women were unsuitable for the space program. It was a blow to the women’s cause, to say the least.
“With the possible exception of President John F. Kennedy, no American was more admired or influential than John Glenn at that moment,” a December 2016 Forbes article stated. “Glenn’s support could have been pivotal for government and public acceptance of female talent in the space program, but he did not offer that support.”
Glenn conceded that women probably would go to space one day, but said, essentially, that day had not yet come.
“The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order,” Glenn said at the time, according to Forbes. “It may be undesirable.”
But less than a year later, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. She orbited the Earth 48 times in June 1963, according to Britannica.com.
It took the U.S. two decades to catch up. Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when she strapped into the Space Shuttle in June 1983. She did it again a year later, according to NASA.
As of July, NASA reports that 50 women have flown with the American space agency, which now far exceeds other space programs. (There have been only two women to fly for the Chinese program and eight women to fly in the Soviet/Russian program).
Epps was expected to join that list in June, making history as the first African-American to live in space. Serena Auñón-Chancellor, a Hispanic flight surgeon selected as an astronaut alongside Epps in 2009, will join that list instead.
Epps, from Syracuse, N.Y., worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for seven years before joining NASA as an astronaut in 2009. She would have been the 15th African-American astronaut to fly in space, according to the space agency.
In its announcement last week, NASA said Epps would return to the Astronaut Office at Johnson and would be considered for future space missions. Her replacement, AuñónChancellor, earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and is board certified in internal and aerospace medicine.