Cobb was best known as a member of the Mercury . 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. By 1960 she had 7,000 hours of flying time. Jerrie Cobb was an exceptional human being. U.S. Air Force Medical Service/Wikimedia CommonsDr. U.S. Air Force Medical Service/Wikimedia Commons. Facing sex discrimination and the return of many qualified male pilots after World War II, she took on less-sought-after flying jobs, such as patrolling pipelines and crop dusting. In this one area of the space race, American men had simply chosen not to compete. In an effort to beat the Soviets to the moon, NASA began training astronauts. Already a veteran pilot at age 29, she aced a battery of tests given to women eager to join the men already jostling for trips to space. She held four world records in speed, altitude, and distance. Daughter of William Harvey Cobb and Helena Butler (Stone) Cobb. MC 974, folder #. [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. Host: Sean MobleyProducer: Keny DuttonWebmaster: Layne BenofskyContent Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla. In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing. He was right but the first women in space wouldnt fly for NASA. Save up to $15 with TurboTax coupon May 2023, Epic Bundle - 3x Expert Stock Recommendations, 15% Off DIY Online Tax Filing Services | H&R Block Coupon Code, 10% TopResume Discount Code for expert resume-writing services, Groupon Promo Code - 30% Off Activities, Dining, More. Ollstein felt obliged to write about the story when she stumbled upon it 10 years ago during a residency at the University of Oklahoma. Her route that morning was a 1,242 mile (2,000 km) triangle with Reno, San Francisco, and San Diego. Thank you to Alaska Airlines for sponsoring this episode of the Flight Deck Podcast. The Mercury 13's story is told in a recent Netflix documentary and a play based on Cobb's life, They Promised Her the Moon,is currently running in San Diego. Original titles, which were taken from the binders or from the original container list provided by the donor, have been retained when possible and are in quotes. Cobb "pioneered new air routes across the hazardous Andes Mountains and Amazon rain forests, using self-drawn maps that guided her over uncharted territory larger than the United States". [6], On March 18, 2019, thirteen days after her 88th birthday, Cobb died at her home in Florida. Jerrie Cobb succeeded in having House subcommittee hearings held in the summer of 1962, investigating whether NASA was discriminating on the basis of sex, but the results were not what she hoped. Women Who Reach for the Stars | NASA Cobb and other surviving members of the Mercury 13 attended the 1995 shuttle launch of Eileen Collins, NASAs first female space pilot and later its first female space commander. Having taken up flying at just age 12, she held numerous world aviation records for speed, distance and altitude, and had logged more than 10,000 hours of flight time. How different, how much further along might the world be, if we had let a woman go into space in the 60s? Born in Oklahoma in 1931, Cobb became a pilot at only 16 years old. They can't . Jerrie Cobb is 88 years old. "I come from a very collaborative world of working in companies," Ollstein says, "so I love rewriting in the room. 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. Jerrie Cobb passed a series of tests meant for Navy pilots and astronauts. Daughter of Lt. Col. William H. and Helena Butler Stone Cobb, Jerrie Cobb grew up in an aviation-oriented environment. After all, women are, on average, lighter and smaller than men, and require less oxygen. In total, 68 percent of the lady astronauts passed, where only 56 percent of the male trainees passed. 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. At the age of 21 she was delivering military fighters and four-engine bombers to foreign Air Forces worldwide. In 1953, Cobb worked for Fleetway, Inc., ferrying war surplus aircraft to other countries, including to the Peruvian Air Force. Jerrie Cobb dropped everything and flew to Washington, DC. Continuing the Legacy of the African American Read-In - NCTE Photographs, 1931?-2000s (#PD.1-PD.47), Series III. She spent her career flying the Amazon jungle as a missionary pilot, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1981. On July 17 and 18, 1962, the House Committee on Science and Astronautics held public hearings on the prospect of women astronauts. There, 13 out of 19 women candidates passed the same astronaut training requirements as the Mercury 7 astronauts, proving that women had the same physical, mental and psychological capabilities as men. 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 (the first woman to qualify) and Janey Hart (the forty-one-year-old mother who was also married to U.S. In the early 1960s, the space race heated up. 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. By age twelve she had learned to fly in her father's plane, and at age sixteen while a student . It didnt. Photographs, clippings, and correspondence of Jerrie Cobb, an aviator, Mercury 13 astronaut, and advocate of women's participation in the space program. "Its not the same way men talk about it. From birth, Cobb was on the move as is the case for many children of military families. The group became known as the Mercury 13.The Mercury 13 campaigned to be a part of NASA's astronaut program but the agency remained opposed to the idea and continued to restrict its official astronaut training program to men. "We seek, only, a place in our Nation's space future without discrimination," Cobb said. NASAAlthough Jerrie Cobb scored in the top two percent of NASA astronaut training, the agency refused to allow women like her to join. Only six of the Mercury 13 are still living. English: Jerrie Cobb poses next to a Mercury spaceship capsule. Jerrie Cobb was the first female to volunteer for the program. The Space Race may have officially ended 50 years ago when the United States put the first man on the moon, but the Soviet Union had already beaten us to several other milestones along the way. Cobb and other surviving members of the Mercury 13 attended the 1995 shuttle launch of Eileen Collins, NASA's first female space pilot and later its first female space commander. 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. By 1960, Cobb had set world aviation records for speed, distance, and altitude flying in Aero Commander airplanes. Once the United States became involved in World War II Cobb's family moved once again, this time to Wichita Falls, Texas where Cobb's father joined his active U.S. National Guard unit. The first day featured Jerrie Cobb and Jane Hart, one of the other members of the "Mercury 13." The second day featured NASA official George Low and astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. For context, it's worth noting that women had a long and distinguished history in aviation, which was the field from which aerospace sprung . But Cobb didnt find a receptive audience in Congress, either. The press ate up the story of Jerrie Cobb. 'The Astronaut Wives Club': Space history vs. Hollywood in Episode 5 "We seek, only, a place in our nation's space future without discrimination," she told a special House subcommittee on the selection of astronauts. Jacqueline Cochran, the famous pilot and businesswoman, and Lovelaces old friend, joined the project as an advisor and paid all of the womens testing expenses. NASA didn't fly a woman in space Sally Ride until 1983. 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. They underwent fourdays of testing, doing the same physical and psychological tests as the original Mercury Seven had. In 1960, Lovelace invited Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb to undergo the same rigorous challenges as the men. But Cobb didnt let reductive and sexist comments like this prevent her from demanding a place for women in the space program. Jerrie Cobb Obituary (1931 - 2019) - Staten Island, NY - Staten Island Want to learn more about the history of spaceflight? The Old Globe Puts Jerrie Cobb's Story Centerstage Instead of making her an astronaut, NASA tapped her as a consultant to talk up the space programme. 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. Randy Lovelace, who had designed the physical tests for the Project Mercury astronauts NASAs original seven astronauts wanted to test womens stamina in space, too. She swallowed a rubber hose and endured nearly 10 hours of sensory deprivation in a water tank. For six days Cobb battled tilt tables, electrical stimulation I came out with a play that no one would ever produce, because it needed too many actors. To check her sense of balance, testers squirted water into her ears. There is a related collection of Jerrie Cobb Papers at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC. But her efforts were to no avail, as NASA simply refused to select women like her. Geraldyn Cobb was born on 5 March 1931 in Norman, Oklahoma, the second daughter of a military pilot and his wife. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. With your help, we can continue to preserve and safeguard the worlds most comprehensive collection of artifacts representing the great achievements of flight and space exploration. It took another 20 years for NASA to send the first American woman to space. When the United States was lagging behind the Soviet Union in the race to space, the Soviet space agency announced plans to send women into space, which spurred American astronaut trainers to consider what might happen if they did the same. During her historic flight, she traveled 23,103 miles in just under 30 days. Because women required less oxygen than men and typically had a lower mass, Lovelace pushed for a female astronaut training program. Episode four of the first season, "Prime Crew", is dedicated to her memory.[26]. 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.