Courtesy of aerospace corporation. Amy is a spaceflight historian, author, public speaker and popular space personality not unlike her subject one of the only academically trained young female spaceflight historians writing for a general audience. She runs the beloved blog vintage space posted by Discover Magazine which is also a Youtube Channel with over 325,000 subscribers. She is a writer for the discovery speaker and has hosted numerous science related shows among them the unexplained files. She gives talks about spaceflight over for the u. S. And america. Please give a warm welcome to the two amy. [applause] bring this down to short level. Good morning, everyone and thank you for coming out to listen toy me talk first thing in the morning for some including myself. I will try to live e up to the everything. I want to start with food here has heard of the team. Theres a decent number of hands maybe 1515 or 20 or sometimes te first lady astronaut trainees. Sorry, there was no way to print my talk. If you dont know the story of the socalled 13 i will explain the air quotes later. Error quotes later. Basically it is the story of 13 women who trained for the spaceflight in the 60s with the goal of righting the wrongs of sexism. At the time they didnt allow women into the core and so they decided that they needed to have this change. It went all the way to a house subcommittee hearinghe in 1962 d spoiler alert, it didnt work. So the spaceflight pioneers were astronaut candidates into the nasa program. They trained for the spaceflight and could have been astronauts. The story that is usually told invariably features the hero named jerry, a young woman in her early 30s at the time. The first woman to take the tests and was kind of the media darling named most familiar with the story. These also feature a villain named jackie cochran. This woman right here. Shes basically a disney villain. She swoops and and works through the subcommittee hearing and then goes home to her castle in thee forest to confer with her pet raven. Shes basically maleficent. Theres been a lot written about the story. Story. Theres been some regularity. Someone gets all excited because it is an appealing feminist story, and its all wrong. The more that i dug into the sand started researching it, thats why there are so many error quotes because that whole narrative is just not right. So i am going to tell you a little bit about theot story toy and also kind of walk you through the process of how i cecame to write this book. To which i will t do this so tht it is burned into your memory. [laughter] so, to start off, when i started reading about the story, i read the feminist one to the one abou, the one abouttaking on mad she is a woman in her early 30s and in a maledominated field trying to be known for her skill. It hit home to me in a lot of ways and it really felt like a great story to tell because who doesnt love giving and unknown figure from history that they are due. As i started researching, something bothered me about the characterization. Why did she come out of her forest castle just to tell nasa and congress that women shouldnt fly in space . No one is that vindictive or does it without pause. Reading the transcript of the congressional or the subcommittee hearing that you know, shes going on and on about women are smaller and lighter scientific information and fewer resources like a payloapayload triggered in the s if you were too heavy for the rocket wouldnt get off the ground. It is a premium here. And in this hearing jackie goes on about how it is in the right time for women. If the rocket blows up with a woman on board, its because the woman did something wrong and that pushes progress back. I started reading this and thought it makes sense. Its very dated but from 1962 it makes a lot of sense. Also, ive always loved maleficent from sleeping beauty. I have it on my phone. Beautiful and i loved maleficent so i wanted to know more about this. This was the first source i read about her and she emerged as this ethnic. I still cant get cliff notes. Jackie was born into poverty in florida and got out of it through theet beauty industry. She learned to fly in her 20s and by the end of the decade was winning all kinds of awards that she actually led to a. She ran for congress and was the first to break the sound barrier. She saved lbjs wife. She ran one of the Largest Cosmetics Companies in the country that was actually one of the Luxury Brands and it gets better because she married floyd is that a familiar name to anybody, a resounding silence of no. He was one of the ten richest men in the country. He was one of the robber barons right up there with the vanderbilts, he was up there. He built america. They are abou about how a couplo end Power Couples and no one has ever heard of them. They know that they can be selfserving. Everyone can tell you that. They wanted to see if everything she said was true, and for the most part, yes. I was able to find other sources and i found stuff to back all of that up i couldnt sing anything to back up the origin story and she admitted she made it up, which. I thought was interestin. So, digging into the early, early life was the funnest thing inin the world. It involved early divorce records with a very exciting clerk at the Montgomery County clerks office. I think it was in georgia. Everything about her adult life, she was right but her early life it turns out to be so much more interesting. And i do want to read a very brief excerpt from the book here because it is easier to just read this instead of try to encapsulately exactly her early life. So, the only thing you need to chow she wasnt born jackie cochran. In the span of a decade shed been married and divorced, welcomed a son and buried him. She buried her father and brother. A her sisters and beloved brother were all raising theirr own families and the only family she had left was her mother. There were nothing but painful memories she decided the time had come to make a clean break. In 1929, 23yearold betsy arrived at the train station in pensacola. Her possessions were packed in suitcases in its savings were in her pocketbook including the money from selling her beloved ford model t. She bought a ticket and boarded a train heading north. She decided to reinvent her passing foot tall people she was an orphan but they have taken her in and never really cared for her. She would never admit to knowing her biological family and tell people that her foster parents had been so poor and unloving she had been forced to leave the house at 11yearsold to find work. She also decided never to tell anyone about her marriage or her son she couldnt bear t to be raced him entirely. He was her happiest memory. So she decided to keep the only thing she had left that they shared. She would remain and cochran to keep her little way of life and would tell people she picked a name at random. As the train moved north she faded into obscurity. When she arrived days later her moxie was something else. No one would ever know her. She decided. So that is our villain. Dont you want to know so much more about her . Here is this woman that reinvent herself so completely that she is so complex is so much in her back story she was 23 by the time all that happened. Of course shes going to become a fascinating character to divee into and to really understand. And i always say shes a real forest gump. Involved in every moment of history and knew every Single Person but isnt tom hanks. So she isnt really the villain of the story. The story of women in space because she was everywhere is her story and everyone else kind of comes into it and gives it back to dynamic. So, lets look at jerry as the woman who gets the context they will put this up so it continues to burn into your brain. Cherry was 25 years younger than jackie and grew up in a different world. Jackie learned to fly in the 1930s when it was really for the rich. It was rare, it wasnt uncommon but it was rare live alone to be back to that they were like lindbergh and erhardt, means people dont even do what they do business and hotshot fighter pilots. Cary grove in a world where postwar she learned to fly as a teenager because it was accessible to learnrn to fly. In the 1950s when she was an adult it was still hard for a woman to make a living as a pilot, but it was possible and she did find a way. She worked in a lot of odd jobs to do it, that it was her passion and what she felt she was brought onto the earth to do. She was a very good pilot that wasnt remarkable in the way jackie was remarkable in hers. Then the space age happened if my joke is always the kind of ruinethat it kindof ruined everr everyone by changing the game so completely. In 1959, nasa was created in 1958, nasa introduced the world to its first class of astronauts and they became celebrities overnight the way thats pilots for celebrities in the 30s. These were all military test pilots that have experience or experimental test pilots had a certain number of hours in the air, height and weight requirements and because if they were over 180 pounds of rocket isnt getting off the ground, bad day for everyone. Only men of time to qualify as test pilots. Nt 110 that the basic requirements and went through personality tests, psychological tests, basic do we like you as a human tests and the last group of finalists went through extensive medical testing in new mexico and then seeing the write stuff that scene where i forget the name of that was very real. All the medical testing that we are somewhat familiar with, this happened like i said this was one of the oldest friends. Floyd was the chairman of the void of the foundation. So all of a sudden they are the celebrities Everyone Wants to be in the chair he happens to be at the right place in the right time with the right background and experience in physical fitness to take the same medical test because randy is curious whether or not a woman would be able to be proven. You cant pass the medical test that she performed adequately in a key in corporate dat heat incs into a paper he gave at a medical conference in the fall of 60. In the fall of 1960 you had the words woman and astronauts in the same sentence what do you think the press is going to pick up some of the press went nuts its like the same way you have the discovery of evidence. Women have the samete tests giv. The media went crazy and completely came up with this whole thing a woman is going to go into space and it becomes this frenzy with jerry epicenter and eventually became a doctor we all know the potential of one is a very important sample size, so a big if more women to do the tests and get more data and jackie is involved and asked her to be the official advisor to the inquiry and there are more data points. Heres where the story gets messy. The media says theres a group of astronauts they will send the first woman into space. Jerry is running around the country giving talks saying shes going to be the first woman astronaut and there areir some in training which isnt true and jackie is sitting there like none of this is real and asking me that no one is telling me and i think that it becomes this kee he said she said the absolute mess. Writing the book it was hard to figure out what was real and what was not and here is what archives became my friends. Archives are the best things that are. So like i said, jackie was good friends with president eisenhower. She kept every single scrap of paper that crossed her desk and its all in the eisenhower library. I had so much fun. When you go to the archives if you list of boxes you can only look at so much. The finding diet is this big. There is 60 feet of material. She kept everything. Every letter, a carbon copy of every letter that she wrote, every letter that she received, copies of letters that she was copied in on. Copies of letters she asked people to send her because she was curious that they were sending to her and business without telling her. So, to keep it straight i was able to actually see what free person was saying and it wasnt just the women. P it ended up getting all the way to nasa and i was able to find the mailing slips to say kennedy got this telegram from her. Have them answer it and this is her. All these Little Details that help to build up a story just how complicated this wasnt how many people were drawn into this area i also found some on ebay which is the best and worst thing best for finding cool stuff and worse for your bank account including littleknown memoirs people had written that were somehow both toiled in the National Archives that all helped clarify the details and among that was transcripts of public talk is so they were able to compare what jackie was saying versus what jerry v was saying so i want to read a bit. A quick example of just how different all of these opinions were. So this is addressing a crowd at an event. They were headlining an event. I wouldnt have known that except she kept her diary in very good order. Women have contributed to these events and this was no different imploring everyone to contribute to the best of their godgiven ability. Having been a professional pilot for many years i feel i could contribute to Space Research in the area of testing and training to prove women have the capabilities of actively participating in the privilege of undergoing three cases of testing. She didnt really. She had been appointed a consultant she told the crowd of she said im the most most uncomfortable to consultant and if the Government Agency today. Im certainly not a feminist nor do i want to be a hairy at beecher stowe. I do not wish to be a martyr but i would willingly give my life to this purpose and comfortable thing to have served my god and my country to the utmost. With god as my toilet, i hope to make that space flight. Applause filled the room. She regained her seat and moved to the podium. The foundations for medical research gave the first text to a large group of candidates. She didnt waste time on any preamble. A volunteer medical research projecproject for the publicity editorial license and Wishful Thinking became parlayed into the widespread belief that there is an Astronaut Program for women. Its a different version of the same story that the women had just heard. It gets really messy and complicated as they go back and forth as one other whether i want to read to you quick. Like i said, despite all th thie way to a house subcommittee hearing. All the way to the house subcommittee hearing. And it even got to the point that another one of the women pilots who was married to senator philip hart got a meeting with lbj when he was vice president. Jackie saved lbjs life one day. Ive never heard of this letter before i found it in the archives which is so cool by the way the hand written things and its not protected and you can just pick it up. I love history. Thank you so much for your nice letter and the enclosure. Its fun to y see you. I had a good time telling them about the friendship when they came to see me. Kind that says aot lot. Between all these letters and even from the women i was able to find, no one agreed on what this program was supposed to be and everybody wanted it to be Something Different largely for salt driven purposes and it became an interesting thing to talk about what actually happened. Why was this program it looks like its goin it was going to. It looks like they were going to go throug through testings testt was canceled and no one wouldd take responsibility for anything. Im not goingi to give away the actual ending. I did manage to track down so much of exactly where this went and why it became such a big diesel and how it became such a mess of he said she said. So the questions i will leave you with in the hopes that you will be curious enough to read it is realistic and wasnt she vindictive or was she right with all the most powerful men in the country and in her pocket effectively. I dont want to give away any more spoilers than that but i will open this up for a question. [applause] good, someone. What started you to become a spaceed nerd . I was researching when i was seven and its awesome because it is so hot its backwards that its right there in the sky and i dont remember if it happened before or after the project but my dad showed me how to find venus in the night sky and theres a cartoon of two astronauts on the moon and it isnt everywhere in canada so its like people went to the moon, why wasnt i informed, so i became fascinated with it but the more you look into it the more things you find out and the bigger the answer becomes and this is for me space history even though its not that it feeds into that because it sheds light on the story of this history that ive always heard of that they never knew the answers to. Tcan you tell us about your writing process, what does that they look like, what does the week with a comedy what yo, do u take a picture of things . Im trying to imagine you getting all the information in. The process is a lot of solitary sitting at my desk. Writing the proposals in the book is actually more time than writing the actual book because i knew the proposal had to be really you write the proposal and so vast and not the whole book. It took almost a year and a half to get it down to where it was solid and my agent didnt let me go out with anything so why all of that is happening i take the research to figure this stuff out and archives for the most part will let you take pictures which is awesome. I took it getting into gets to the point its hard to give to so i look through the random boxes and found some amazing stuff by chance. There is a move afoot to suggest you dont take the High School Science fair person and woman to the mars mission. No i didnt because radiation at this point would be a problem going to the moon so that would play an early astronaut selection but in that apollo era that the mission is so short its not that big of a deal but radiation from my understanding that is the big problem nobody will survive that. That is a big one. We are talking two years for radiation exposure. Have you talk to any of the current core of the any female astronauts . And are there reactions . The book comes out on tuesday so nobody has read it yet. Very excited for it to be out. I know a handful i dont think i know the current core actually. But there are a bunch you are on the list and those from nasa will lead you in that direction am curious what they think of it. But nobody has yet. Your research have you come across anything that they have advantages over men for the spaceflight for combat aircraft they can tolerate the high g forces better than men or anything like that . From what i found the research was pretty limited which is a a super expensive but there is some merit to women who consumed those resources are mores of efficient i am 5foot tall i can fit in a smaller space i eat less than a guy who was 6foot six so theres something to be said those general resources but ultimately it comes down to your ability to be human not an eating machine or a Waste Production machine. [laughter] you talk a lot about the research was there anything you could not track down . Jerry is notoriously she passed away last march but has always been notoriously reclusive after this whole thing died down she ended up working parttime. Working largely as a missionary pilot between south america and florida and that was most of her work but she was really hard to get to i have friends who had phone numbers for her email addresses and they came with a strict do not disturb so i didnt want to be that person so i wanted to go through a more friendly means. So i could not talk to her but she wrote memoirs so i have her stories so i could do a lot with that Research Even though i could not speak with her and jackie died in 1980. I visited her grave but it didnt tell me much. [laughter] even to her old house that is now a golf course. In preparation for this i looked on youtube can you tell us about your vintage space blogs . I realized i really need to date that bio. So the background of that is recently i went into the vintage space to go into history unrelated men history stuff but that started as my own experience to figure out the writer as the academic writer i did not love academic life. After my masters life and then i started a blog but within a matter of months it was worth sticking it out to try this whole writer business but then the worst reality for a writer people just like to watch things and then gradually now have settled into a thing i put up a video on youtube very here regularly and have a companion blog i love having this under my control. And to do an article that happened. Could you think of a more 19 sixties program to spend millions ofou dollars . Do you know how hard it is to train cats . So i get to look at all kinds ofin things i imagine jackie had a cosmetics empire and other records that she did and bible readings it is all really fascinating history. Jerry has great romances and there is some material i discovered recently that was a hallmark situation so there those that are very interesting feeling like a little days of our lives rightin now. I will dig into that and explore that like my internet baby i can do what i want. Its my little place for creative freedom this is cool but you will learn about it and try to make it fun but mostly with my cat. [laughter]r]un anyone else . Whats next . For it to be released. [laughter] its so weird having a book. Is just to have it come out and help that people like it and that it doesco well. I havent really gotten beyond that yet to be honest. Everything is wrapped up to figure this out for those that you can or cannot talk about yet there is a lot of this in my future right now and some vacation. At some point there will be a vacation. My background is history science and was in the history of science and technology because they went to the college in canada that gives you science undergraduate degree that gives you that without being in a lab im not good at that. After my undergrad i didnt know what i wanted to do so why did a degree in Corporate Communications and publicte relations which was not for me at all. So i went back and did a masters degree in science and technology studies. You do that before your phd figure out how to do it and its not the right program and not the right school and that soured me on academia a little bit f i dont want to spend five years on a dissertation that five people will read and doesnt even include the history all graffiti. Nobody does that i would rather spend time reading that more people would read so its called breaking the chains of gravity how all of the pieces of the state agency work when with that Interesting Research and then love to write the thing that feels engaging. And very clever. Could you use smaller words . I know the jargon. Anything else . I know we are close on time. Thank you. [applause] have time for the answer and other guests have a chance to ask a question as well. Robert wilson is with us today was the author of a biography of Terrence King the editor of the american scholar, former editor o