NASA's first female candidate for astronaut, Jerrie Cobb, dies

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – NASA's first astronaut pilot, pilot Jerrie Cobb, is dead.

Cobb died in Florida at the age of 88 last month. British journalist Miles O'Brien, who was his spokesperson, heard the news of his death.

In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut tests. In total, 13 women passed the painful physical tests and are known as Mercury 13. But NASA already had its Mercury 7 astronauts, all pilots and men.

None of the Mercury 13 reaches the space.

Cobb served for decades as a humanitarian aid pilot in the Amazon jungle. It appeared in 1998 to take another step forward as NASA prepared to launch John Glenn on the Discovery Shuttle at age 77. Cobb said unsuccessfully that the research should include an older woman.