I came across a very interesting American space programme article that appeared in the
Journal Advances in Physiology Education under the by-line "
A Woman in Space."
If you saw the movie "
The Right Stuff", they obviously missed a brilliant side-note to the movie. According to the linked paper below;
"The tests that these women underwent were identical to those used to test the original Mercury astronauts, with the addition of gynaecological examinations. Thirteen of the nineteen women tested passed these strenuous physiological exams (for comparison, 18 of 32 men tested passed) a subset of these pilots was further tested on a series of psychological exams that were similar to or, in some instances, more demanding than those given to male Mercury candidates."
The full pdf / HTML preprint of the article entitled "
A forgotten moment in physiology: the Lovelace Woman in Space Program (1960–1962)"; by Ryan, K.L., Loepphy, J.A., Kilgore Jr.D.E, , (06th October 2009) appears at;
Those fairly non-technical article is an absolute gem!!
Wouldn't it make a great Hollywood sequel - "
The Right Stuff II"
Note: The original link appeared in EurekAlert!
The Right Stuff (In Pink)
