Book Review about Almost Astronauts

I just read a book called Almost Astronauts It was about 13 women that wanted to become astronauts in the 1960s. After Russia orbited a satellite called Sputnik and it was the first time anyone had sent anything into orbit, NASA was started. The USA got the best jet tests pilots together and they were called the Mercury 7 men. There goal was to get a man to the moon in the next decade. They were the all American heroes. They made news nation wide as the bravest men on Earth. Their wives were also publicized, but in a different way. There were pictures of them cleaning the house and taking care of the kids. But Randolph Lovelace disagreed. He thought that women were not just housewives. So he started Women in Space program. He needed data that would prove that women had the Right Stuff to become astronauts. He found the perfect person. Jerri Cobb was a 28 year old pilot that already had logged in more 7,000 hours in the air. Lovelace gave her all 98 tests the Mercury 7 men had taken. Some of them were injecting freezing water in her inner ear to record her vertigo, drink radioactive water, have three feet of rubber hose slid down her throat, and others. She aced all of them and complained less then the men. When showed the data, NASA didn’t care. “Space is no place for women,” they said. Even NASA was prejudice. But Lovelace didn’t give up. He tested thirteen other women who all aced every test. Cobb decided to try the isolation tank. It was a tank of water in a light proof and sound proof room. Cobb had to float in the tank using floaters. It was near weightlessness. This was like space. Most of the people that had tackled the isolation tank had cracked. After thirty minutes, they would start babbling and hallucinating. Dr. Shurley was the one who invented the isolation tank and he cracked too! But Cobb was amazing. She stayed in the isolation tank more than 9 hours! All thirteen women went through grueling tests that the Mercury 7 men didn’t. But they never complained. They were quite optimistic that they would persuade the NASA administrators to let them go to space. But they were wrong. NASA said no and also said “you have the right stuff, but you are in the wrong time.” Cobb was especially heartbroken because she was so close, so close to being the first woman in space. Even though Cobb failed to become an astronaut, women were inspired and trained too. She led the way for Sally Ride and Eileen Collins. Later, Cobb worked in South America delivering medicine and supplies to the natives. She won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work. I also think that Cobb had the right stuff, but I disagree about being in the “wrong time”. I think that there is no wrong time for any kind of achievements. Right now, about 3.5% of the NASA astronauts are woman. Do you know why? It’s because women do not pursue their dreams. America needs more women like Jerri Cobb. Maybe you will be like Cobb. Maybe you will change the course of history.- Bi