Review: Mercury 13 highlights women who dreamed of the stars

The first US astronauts began their careers with a famously rigorous mental and physical screening. Candidates underwent dozens of x rays, had freezing water injected into their ears, and spent hours in a sensory deprivation tank. Mercury astronauts like John Glenn, Gus Grissom, and Alan Shepard all passed with flying colors. But, as the new Netflix documentary Mercury 13 showcases, there was another group of aspirants who passed those tests: 13 female pilots who hoped to join the men in space.

Since no women were among the famous Mercury or Apollo astronauts, most viewers will know how the story ends before the documentary begins. The Mercury 13 never joined NASA; the space program’s leadership was firmly against the idea of female astronauts. In 1962, after a contentious hearing, Congress and Vice President Lyndon Johnson decided to allow NASA to continue its men-only recruitment policy. Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963; no American woman would make the trip until Sally Ride two decades later.

But even though we know the outcome, Mercury 13 is a fascinating journey. Directors David Sington and Heather Walsh paint an engaging picture of the daring, ambitious women who wanted to go into space. Four members of the Mercury 13 contribute interviews to the documentary: Wally Funk, Gene Nora Jessen, Sarah Ratley, and Rhea Woltman. All four are lively and funny and don’t bother to mince words. Family members give interviews about two pilots who have died: Bernice “B” Steadman is represented by her husband, Bob, and Jim and Ann Hart share their memories of their mother, Janey Hart.

The film combines those interviews with historical footage, photographs, and radio broadcasts along with some modern-day coverage of the surviving Mercury 13 women. The final product is captivating and nearly seamless, with one stylistic misstep. Mercury 13 incorporates a handful of fanciful sequences, including one that shows a woman floating from a sensory deprivation tank up toward the stars and another that imagines a Moon landing that includes female astronauts. The first is merely a bit cheesy; the second, which is used both early and late in the film, risks confusing viewers who don’t know that to this day no women have walked on the Moon.

Despite those flaws, Mercury 13 builds a compelling historical story. Viewers learn about women in aviation during the 1930s and 1940s, including the Women Airforce Service Pilots and participants in the Women’s Transcontinental Air Derby race, better known as the Powder Puff Derby. From there, the movie narrows its focus to the women who would become the Mercury 13—all experienced pilots who loved to fly.

When NASA physician Randy Lovelace began devising the physical and psychological tests he would give to male astronauts, he suspected that women would do well in the screening if given a chance. Without NASA’s permission or knowledge, Lovelace decided to test female candidates—a decision likely inspired by his close friendship with the famous test pilot Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran. Funk, Jessen, Ratley, and Woltman still light up when they remember receiving Lovelace’s invitation to undergo the same physical testing as the men in the Mercury program.

Lovelace invited 25 women to his clinic in New Mexico. (The movie does not mention that the invitations were limited to white women, even though women of color had also made names for themselves as pilots .) Thirteen of them passed every physical test. Those 13 were even more impressive in the second, psychological phase of the testing. Lovelace found that women did particularly well in the sensory deprivation tank, experiencing fewer hallucinations and far less restlessness than the male astronauts.

Yet when Lovelace tried to bring his candidates to Pensacola, Florida, to undergo the final phase of astronaut testing, he was met with a swift and unequivocal no from NASA.

The story of the group’s efforts to convince NASA, Congress, and the public that women should go into space is the most powerful part of the film. Geraldyn “Jerrie” Cobb, who had broken speed, distance, and altitude records as an airplane pilot, became one of the most visible of the Mercury 13. Cobb spoke passionately on talk shows and news programs about why the US should train both male and female astronauts. “If we’re going to send a human being into space, we should send the one most qualified,” she told one interviewer. “I think we ought to use both.”

Janey Hart, a mother of eight who earned her pilot’s license as a teenager, also emerged as a public leader of the Mercury 13. We learn surprisingly late in the film that Hart was a US senator’s wife; her husband, Philip, represented Michigan from 1959 until his death in 1976. The outspoken Hart, later a founding member of the National Organization for Women, was not afraid to use her political know-how to bolster the Mercury 13’s case.

Not even Cobb’s charisma, Hart’s connections, and the passion of the other would-be astronauts were enough to sway lawmakers. The pilots’ lingering disappointment over the lack of support from NASA and Congress is still evident more than half a century later. “It was a good old boy network, and there was no such thing as a good old girl network,” Funk tells her interviewer. Ratley’s voice cracks as she recounts the story. Bob Steadman is clearly still irritated with the male astronauts who testified that women couldn’t possibly go to space; he thinks they didn’t want the Mercury 13 as colleagues because they feared being overshadowed. “One beautiful woman as an astronaut would have just dominated the news,” he argues.

Despite the disappointing outcome, Mercury 13 is not a pessimistic film. The movie makes the case that the Mercury 13’s efforts helped pave the way for future women astronauts in the US. We may wish the story had ended differently in the 1960s, but Mercury 13 is a moving tribute to how much those women accomplished—as pilots, public figures, and inspirations for future generations.

Mercury 13 is currently streaming on Netflix.