What the early NASA program did in the 50's and 60's was only made possible by accepting risks that would curdle the blood of today's risk-averse NASA administr

What the early NASA program did in the 50's and 60's was only made possible by accepting risks that would curdle the blood of today's risk-averse NASA administration. The U.S. has a long history of very chivalrously protecting its women-folk from such "front-line" service. It wasn't until 1988 that the first female pilot was cleared for combat in the USAF, let alone test-pilot duty! The U.S. army, unlike many of its allies, still does not permit women in front line combat, although they have announced their intention to change this. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/24/us-usa-military-women-idUSBRE90M1FI20130124 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/24/us-usa-military-wo... Reflecting the danger of the job, the first few classes of astronauts were required, by president Eisenhower's directive, to be military test pilots. These were men whose profession necessarily required them to accept a large degree of risk. Had one of these early missions resulted in fatalities the government would have been able to draw on past experience explaining the death of test pilots to the public. This requirement would not change until 1965 when scientists holding PhD's would be permitted into the program. This explains why NASA was not considering women in 1962. None existed that met the President's requirements. If you want to call somebody sexist for rejecting Miss Kelly, look no further than the oval office! Valentina Tereshkova, for comparison, was not a military test pilot, or even a pilot at all. She was experienced with parachuting, but only in an amateur capacity. She did not compete with men and become an astronaut purely based on merit. The USSR's space program decided specifically to send a woman into orbit as a political statement and to see how female physiology stood up to space travel. Several women were considered for this honor and Tereshkova was chosen as much for her proletariat background as her parachuting experience. The first woman in space was a symbol, nothing more. The second woman in space, and the first to perform a space walk, would not come along for another 19 years. Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya was a test pilot and a real cosmonaut, not just a symbol. She deserves the credit Tereshkova usually gets. Sally Ride would become the U.S.'s first female astronaut a year after Savitskaya's first mission, but this was only made possible by the perception of relative safety offered by the shuttle program and NASA's creation of the mission specialist class of astronauts. Had the challenger disaster occurred prior to Ride's first mission, it's very possible the U.S. might still have yet to send a female astronaut into space.