Right Stuff, Wrong Sex

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

Exhibits, Postal Museum, National Museum, Science, Tony Cohn, African American History And Culture, Air And Space, Zoo, Sidedoor, Dc, Art19, Washington, Megan Detrie, Pop Culture, Exhibit, Society & Culture, American History, History, The Smithsonian, Smithsonian, Museum, National Zoo, History Of The World, Natural History

4.7 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There was a time, before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, when some researchers believed women were better suited for space than men. In 1961, a group of female pilots—today known as the Mercury 13—quietly aced NASA’s toughest astronaut tests, even outperforming the Mercury men in some areas. But with the space race heating up, their mission was grounded— but not by science. But what became of America’s first female astronaut candidates?

Guests:

Margaret Weitekamp, chair of the space history department at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and author of Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Women in Space Program andSpace Craze: America’s Enduring Fascination with Real and Imagined Spaceflight

Emily Calandrelli, engineer, author, and TV show host of Emily’s Wonderlab and Xploration Outer Space

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:13.3	I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:25.2	What does that like to get back to your email?
0:28.4	Be like, sorry for the delay, just got back from space.
0:33.7	Oh, it was my favorite out-of-office email message I've ever written.
0:36.7	I'm training to go to space this week. Let me get back to you next week when I've
0:39.2	returned to Earth. Emily Calendrelli is an engineer, author, and TV show host. And on November
0:46.4	22nd, 2024, she strapped into a space capsule on top of a rocket. I think when we talk to most
0:53.8	astronauts, people are like, like, I wasn't scared.
0:57.2	I was calm.
0:58.9	I was collected.
1:00.3	Not me.
1:01.5	My heart was beating out of my chest.
1:05.0	Picture this.
1:06.6	Emily's buckled into a five-point harness, the kind race car drivers wear.
1:18.8	Lying nearly flat alongside five other passengers aboard Blue Origin's NS28 mission.
1:22.6	That's when it felt like, okay, here we go.
1:24.6	Deep press, here we go, here we go, here we go.
1:26.9	The countdown begins. Five, four. Command engines start.
1:30.3	Two, one.
1:32.3	And the engines ignite, and the flame surrounds you.
1:38.8	You don't lift off for about seven seconds, so you see the inside of the capsule will glow
	...

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