PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON announced the formation
of the FAA's Women's Advisory Committee on Aviation, May 4, 1964.
Most of the 27 non-government members, including Jane Hart and Jean
Ross Howard, co-chairman, and five government members, were 99s.
Although members of this committee pushed for admission of women to
NASA, they were 17 years too early to become astronauts.
In 1961, Jerrie Cobb was the first female to pass
all three phases of the Mercury Astronaut Program. Twelve other 99s
passed the series of 75 exhaustive physical competence tests and
laboratory tests. They were rejected, and the first female in space
was Russian.
Jerrie Cobb was deeply discouraged by the failure
of NASA to put a female in space, and the same year (1964) became a
jungle pilot in the Amazon. She has devoted all her resources and
talents to helping Indian tribes in unexplored parts of six
countries.
The above image is the cover of her book about her life.
The following personal story is borrowed from the
99s International webpage:
THE MERCURY 13 STORY
by Wally Funk 
In a pueblo-style building in Southeast
Albuquerque, a group of Lovelace Clinic aviation medicine experts
put 31 astronaut candidates through a week of medical tests, chiefly
involving being poked, prodded and given every test known to medical
science. Thus the beginning of The Mercury Seven. In this year of
1959, America saw the greatest male heroes of modern life even
before they flew in space.
Dr. R. Lovelace helped NASA draw up their profile
of the perfect astronaut, based on years of medical testing
experience of pilots. Again in 1959, Dr. Lovelace was in Miami,
Florida attending an Aviation Convention, when he and Air Force
Brigadier General Donald Flickinger wondered how women would handle
the new frontier of space, if they were given a chance. General
Flickinger had knowledge of the Russians preparing a non-pilot woman
to be put into space and knew America had to act quickly if we
wanted to launch a woman into space first. At this same Aviation
Convention, Dr. Lovelace and General Flickinger met Aero Commander's
first woman pilot, Jerrie Cobb. Impressed by Jerrie's experience and
credentials, Jerrie was selected to be the first American woman to
take the astronaut tests.
February 1960, Jerrie reported to the Lovelace
Clinic under strict secrecy. She took all the Mercury Seven tests
and did very well in the final analysis. These tests were called
Phase I. Long time friend of Dr. Lovelace was famed aviatrix Jackie
Cochran who generously supported the financial needs for the forth
coming women to take Phase I. Lists were made of eligible women to
participate in the Mercury Program from FAA records in Washington
D.C. and the Ninety-Nines. Twenty-five women were contacted. The
women were to be under 35 years of age, in good health, hold a
second class medical, four year college education, a commercial
rating or better and have over 2,000 hours of flying time. Jerrie
Cobb helped in the selection, and if it had not been for Jerrie, the
Mercury 13 would have never made it on paper much less into the
testing phases.
Between February 1961 and that summer, 12 women
aviators were test candidates sworn to secrecy to become the Mercury
13. Their names are: 'K' Cagle, Jerrie Cobb, Jan Dietrich, Marion
Dietrich*, Wally Funk, Jane Hart, Jean Hixson*, Gene Nora Jessen,
Irene Leverton, Sarah Ratley, 'B' Steadman, Jerri Truhill and Rhea
Woltman. (*Deceased). Cobb, Funk and Woltman went on to take Phase
II, Cobb and Funk completed Phase III. In spite of each woman's
outstanding test results, these talented women would never get a
chance to fly into space. 
Thirty four years later, seven of the Mercury 13
witnessed America's first woman pilot astronaut, Lt. Col. Eileen
Collins launch at Cape Kennedy on February 3, 1995. Lt. Col. Collins
was the pilot on STS-63 Discovery*. 
(In July 1999 Eileen Collins became the first
woman to command a Shuttle Launch!)
Not all the Mercury 13 candidates knew each other
all those years. However in 1994, ten of the Mercury 13 met for the
first time. Date Line NBC told their story on February 10, 1995.
Hundreds of new papers, books and films have been
made about the Mercury 13, but it never made the front page.
Contributing 99, Wally Funk
Our History - 1960s to
now..
