B.B.C. Article
In the early 60s, 13 women undertook secret tests at Nasa to see if they could become astronauts. Were it not for rules which prevented them from flying missions, the first woman in space could have been an American.


Pilot Jerrie Cobb passed the training tests devised by William Randolph Lovelace

When Nasa astronaut Kate Rubins recently became the 60th woman to go into space, Wally Funk was watching.
There are two televisions in her Texas living room. One is tuned permanently to Nasa TV.
Space is one of her passions. The other is flying. Funk was America's first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector and it was her skills as a pilot that, in 1961, led her to become one of 13 women who passed secret medical tests to become an astronaut.
The Mercury 13, as they are now known, undertook the same tough mental and physical tests as the famous silver-suited Mercury 7.
Those latter all-American heroes included John Glenn and played an important part in the space race against the Soviet Union, eventually placing a man on the Moon.

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