In 1957, the space race rushed the United States to find a way to send man to the moon. NASA had to determine who was eligible and qualified to be an astronaut. They didn’t know what space would be like and no one knew what would happen to the “human body in a microgravity environment” so multiple tests had to be run. Lovelace came up with the mercury test that would be the most accurate and closest thing to testing out the human body under all conditions. NASA picked potential astronauts from military pilots and jet pilots. These type of pilots didn’t allow women to participate so Lovelace tested 19 women who were regular pilots. Even though the 13 women who ended up passing the tests “exceeded men who passed” the idea of a woman being
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Before the 1970 's, “women, when they were to be found, played supporting roles” in the space program. In early 1970 though, Poppy Northcutt became the first and only female in the mission control room. She helped make sure the astronauts got to the moon and returned home safely. She remembered realizing, “I’m as smart as they [men] are,” as she sat in a room with all white men trying to work out earths projectors and tough equations. This small break through, with a woman having an important role within a usual male dominant career, was significant. In the 1970 's, technology played a large role in the advancement of women in NASA. The construction of the shuttle was underway and it could safely fly eight astronauts. Now NASA was reaching out for women and minorities to sign up. “Why NASA finally reached out to include women wasn’t because of love or because they felt sorry or felt ashamed, they had political pressure.” Again NASA changed their ways due to society pressures and this time they took notice to big companies including women and they didn’t want lawsuits. Now that NASA was reaching out to get women and minorities involved, not many were applying because after excluding women for so long they didn’t believe NASA was serious. Ronald Reagan announced that the frontier of space was open to all and NASA put their hopes on Michelle Nicole, an African American women that was an actress on star trek and played a pilot role, to be the public face of NASA in hopes to bring in women and minorities. It worked and on January of 1978, 35 “new guys” were introduced to the country as the new 35 astronauts leading the mission. Out of those 35, 6 women were included. In 1982, Sally Ride became the first women in space. Big leaps were being made towards women’s participation in the space program and it was only just the
Before the 1970 's, “women, when they were to be found, played supporting roles” in the space program. In early 1970 though, Poppy Northcutt became the first and only female in the mission control room. She helped make sure the astronauts got to the moon and returned home safely. She remembered realizing, “I’m as smart as they [men] are,” as she sat in a room with all white men trying to work out earths projectors and tough equations. This small break through, with a woman having an important role within a usual male dominant career, was significant. In the 1970 's, technology played a large role in the advancement of women in NASA. The construction of the shuttle was underway and it could safely fly eight astronauts. Now NASA was reaching out for women and minorities to sign up. “Why NASA finally reached out to include women wasn’t because of love or because they felt sorry or felt ashamed, they had political pressure.” Again NASA changed their ways due to society pressures and this time they took notice to big companies including women and they didn’t want lawsuits. Now that NASA was reaching out to get women and minorities involved, not many were applying because after excluding women for so long they didn’t believe NASA was serious. Ronald Reagan announced that the frontier of space was open to all and NASA put their hopes on Michelle Nicole, an African American women that was an actress on star trek and played a pilot role, to be the public face of NASA in hopes to bring in women and minorities. It worked and on January of 1978, 35 “new guys” were introduced to the country as the new 35 astronauts leading the mission. Out of those 35, 6 women were included. In 1982, Sally Ride became the first women in space. Big leaps were being made towards women’s participation in the space program and it was only just the