Jerrie Cobb, member of NASA's "Mercury 13" secret, dies at age 88

April 19 (UPI) – Jerrie Cobb, the first woman in the world to complete her training as an American astronaut in the early 1960s, died at the age of 88, said her family.

Cobb – an unprecedented pilot before joining NASA for an astronaut training program with 12 other women, dubbed "Mercury 13" – passed away on March 18, but the family spokesperson did not say it. did not announce the result. until thursday.

NASA finally ended the First Lady Astronaut Training program, preferring to only send men into space. Cobb remained an activist of female pilots and astronauts to the point where she has already championed the opportunities of the Women in Space program with famed astronaut John Glenn at a hearing before a Senate committee in 1962. Glenn said at the time "that the fact that women are not in this area is a fact of our social order".

"It is inconceivable to me that the world of outer space is reserved for men, like a sort of deer club," said Jane Briggs Hart, a member of "Mercury 13" at the time. .

"It is not a question of whether we need them, but if we can prevent them from entering," said Pennsylvania Representative James Fulton. "Women are storming the ramparts of space, we men could just as easily stop fighting and let them in."

Born Geraldyn Cobb in Oklahoma in 1931, she earned a pilot's license at age 16 and accumulated more than 7,000 flying hours when she was selected for a space resistance test. The 1959 tests were conducted in secret because the astronaut candidates had to be military test pilots at the time. In 1961, she became the first member of the group to pass all phases of testing.

NASA ended the program in 1962 and Cobb and the other 12 opposed the closure of the Congress. She testified at hearings to determine whether NASA discriminated against women.

"As pilots, we fly and share mutual respect with the male drivers of the aviation world, primarily male," said Cobb. "We see only a place in the future of our nation's space without discrimination."

After four years spent at NASA, she performed several humanitarian missions over the next four decades in the jungle of South America. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1981 and was honored by four countries in South America.

Despite the space flight of Valentina Tereshkova (Soviet Union) in 1964, NASA did not send a woman into space until astronaut Sally Ride mounted the space shuttle in a low Earth orbit in 1983.

There are only four surviving members of "Mercury 13."