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Brains On presents - Rocket women: How a secret program paved the way for female astronauts

December 30, 2025·36 min·3 clips

Before Sally Ride, a secret group of women almost became astronauts—meet the FLATS.

This episode of Forever Ago, hosted by Joy Dolo and Elsa, explores the secret 1960s program that tested female pilots for spaceflight. They discuss the "Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees," a group now often called the Mercury 13. The story begins in the 1950s during the Space Race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. NASA's initial astronaut requirement was to be a military test pilot, a job closed to women at the time. Pilot Geraldine "Jerry" Cobb, who set world flight records, was the first woman recruited by Dr. William Lovelace for his private, secret testing program. Tests included swallowing a long rubber tube and having ice water shot into the ears to simulate space sickness. Twenty-four more women were recruited, including 41-year-old Jane Hart and 21-year-old Wally Funk. Thirteen women passed the rigorous physical and psychological exams. The U.S. government and NASA, upon discovering the unauthorized program, shut it down before the women could proceed to further testing at a naval base. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson wrote "let's stop this now" on a related memo. Jerry Cobb and Jane Hart testified before Congress in 1962, but their qualifications were dismissed. The Soviet Union sent the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, to space in 1963. The episode notes that subsequent civil rights and women's rights movements led to laws against gender discrimination in hiring. In 1995, surviving members of the group attended the launch of Eileen Collins, the first female space shuttle pilot. Wally Funk finally went to space in 2021 at age 82 on a private spacecraft. The tone is playful and conversational, framed by a humorous narrative of the hosts being trapped in a closet black hole. The style is educational, blending historical facts with character voices and sound effects. Young listeners interested in history, space, and stories of perseverance would love this episode. Those seeking a purely serious, straightforward documentary might find the framing device too silly.

As heard by us

A secret astronaut test program becomes a lively story about grit, luck, and women NASA never officially tested.

This story turns a little-known chapter of space history into a kid-friendly account of women pilots being tested for astronaut training in New Mexico, with Jerry's results giving the plot its tension.

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Why you'd press play

You want the overlooked women-in-space story: when NASA picked the first seven astronauts, they were all men, so a secret test program gave female pilots a shot.

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