Sunday, July 20, 2003



Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight
Martha Ackmann, Foreword by Lynn Sherr


A very interesting book - and an unfortunate angle of the Space Race, the denial of participation for some truly qualified and commited pilots. Ackmann recounts the history of what is now called "The Mercury 13," highly qualified women pilots who successfully underwent the same testing as the men called "the Mercury 7". Without rancor and any heavy agenda, she lays out the story of what was a tremendous disappointment as well as loss for our nation's program. It would be easy to embellish on the nonsensical reasoning that stopped this program, which was essentially run at private expense and parallel by the same scientists who tested the men for NASA.

Inspiring heroes all, the women told of here are worth knowing about - and this book is a great testimony to them.

Of note is the fact that one of them, Wally Funk, is still in active pursuit of the dream to fly in space!