For the primary 20 years of its existence, NASA was the epitome of the outdated boys’ membership; The astronaut ranks have been drawn completely from the Armed Forces’ experimental pilot applications which, on the time, have been staffed completely by males. Glass ceilings weren’t the one issues that have been damaged when Sally Trip, Judy Resnick, Cathy Sullivan, Anna Fisher, Margaret “Rhea” Seddon, and Shannon Lucid have been accepted into this system in 1978 — many spaceflight methods needed to be re-evaluated to accommodate a extra various group. workforce. in The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts, Journalist Lauren Grosch chronicles the numerous trials and challenges these girls confronted—from institutional sexism to fixed survival coaching to navigating the non-public pressures concerned within the frequent lifetime of an astronaut—of their efforts to succeed in orbit.

Tailored from The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts By Lauren Grosch. Copyright © 2023 by Lauren Grasch. Excerpted with permission from Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Above the Chisos Mountains sprawling throughout Massive Bend Nationwide Park in West Texas, Cathy (Sullivan, Ph.D., third girl to fly in house and head of the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)) sat within the again seat of NASA’s WB-57F reconnaissance aircraft because it soared excessive into the sky Pilot Jim Kurkowski stored his eye on the aircraft’s altimeter because it climbed. They’d simply handed sixty thousand toes, and so they weren’t executed climbing. It was an astonishingly excessive altitude, however the aircraft was constructed to deal with such excessive situations.

Contained in the cockpit, Kathy and Jim have been prepared. They’re absolutely geared up with Air Pressure high-altitude stress fits. To the untrained observer, the gear seemed nearly like precise spacesuits. Every set consists of a darkish coloured cumbersome leggings, with thick gloves and a thick helmet. This mixture is designed to exert stress on the physique because the air at excessive altitudes thins and makes it nearly not possible for the human physique to perform.

The duo ultimately reached the goal altitude: 63,300 toes. At this altitude, their stress fits have been a matter of life and dying. The encircling air stress was so low that their blood may start to boil if their our bodies have been left unprotected. However with the fits on, it was an uneventful analysis journey. Cathy took photos utilizing a specialised infrared digital camera that may produce coloration photographs, and in addition scanned distant terrain with totally different wavelengths of sunshine.

They spent solely an hour and a half over Massive Bend, and the flight took solely 4 hours. Though it might appear to be a fast and simple flight, Cathy made historical past when she reached remaining altitude over West Texas on July 1, 1979. At that second, she flew increased than any girl ever, setting an unofficial world flight file.

The WB-57 coaching mission frightened her at first, however Kathy ended up loving the high-flying plane. “That was loads of enjoyable,” Kathy mentioned, “aside from that little imprecise fear of, ‘I hope this doesn’t imply I’m falling off the face of the Earth.’” The mission took her on flights north to Alaska and south to Peru. As she had hoped, she was absolutely certified to put on Air Pressure stress fits, changing into the primary girl to take action. Sporting a full-body swimsuit designed to maintain her alive quickly grew to become second nature to her.

NASA officers additionally requested her to check a brand new piece of apparatus they have been creating for future shuttle astronauts, a chunk that will enable folks to alleviate themselves whereas in house. Through the Apollo and Gemini period, NASA developed a comparatively refined system for astronauts to urinate of their flight fits. It was basically a versatile rubber band that wrapped across the penis, which was then hooked up to the gathering bag. The condom-like cuffs got here in “small”, “medium” and “giant” sizes (though Michael Collins claimed that the astronauts gave them their very own phrases: “further giant”, “huge” and “unimaginable”). It was actually not a foolproof system. Urine typically escapes from beneath the sheath.

Handcuffs actually will not work as soon as girls enter the astronaut corps. Whereas the Area Shuttle had a flowery new bathroom utilized by each women and men, the astronauts nonetheless wanted some respiratory house after they have been strapped into their seats for hours, ready for launch or return. If a lady have been to do a spacewalk, she would wish some kind of system throughout these hours whereas she was afloat. Subsequently, NASA engineers created the Disposable Absorbent Containment (DACT) field. In its easiest type it was. . . diapers. It was a straightforward resolution in case the astronauts needed to urinate whereas out of attain of the bathroom. It was designed to soak up feces as effectively, though girls could have chosen to attend till they have been in orbit to take action.

Cathy was one of the best individual to expertise it. Usually, throughout her high-altitude flights, she could be trapped in her stress swimsuit for lengthy hours, creating ultimate testing situations for analyzing DACT’s sturdiness. This works like magic. Though the primary shuttle pilots caught with handcuffs, DACT ultimately grew to become normal gear for everybody.

After spending tons of of hours in these stress fits, Kathy hoped to parlay her expertise right into a flight mission, one which may enable her to stroll outdoors the Area Shuttle someday. As luck would have it, she bumped into Bruce McCandless II on the JSC gymnasium one afternoon. He was the man who knew when it got here to a spacewalk. NASA officers positioned him in control of creating all spacewalk procedures and protocols, and at instances he seemed to be residing in NASA loos. As well as, he would at all times recruit certainly one of Cathy’s colleagues to do a simulated tank run with him. Cathy wished to be subsequent. Displaying as a lot confidence as attainable, she requested him to contemplate her for the subsequent coaching spherical.

It labored. Bruce invited Cathy to accompany him to Marshall Area Flight Middle in Alabama to dive into the tank there. The 2 will work on spacewalking methods that would someday be used to assemble an area station. Nonetheless, the house shuttle fits are nonetheless not prepared to be used but. Cathy needed to put on Pete Conrad’s Apollo Moonwalker swimsuit, simply as Anna did throughout the spacewalk simulation. However whereas the swimsuit swallowed little Anna, it was too small for Kathy, by about an inch. When she put it on, the swimsuit stabbed into her shoulders, whereas components of it appeared to dig into her chest and again. She tried to face up and nearly fainted. It took all her energy to stroll to the pool earlier than she fell into the tank. Within the simulated weightlessness surroundings, the ache evaporated immediately. Nevertheless it was nonetheless an essential lesson in spacesuit sizes. The fits should match the wearer completely if the spacewalk is to achieve success.

The beginning of the session could have been painful, however as soon as she began adjusting the instruments and understanding how one can maneuver her arms to maneuver the remainder of her physique, she was blown away. She liked the spacewalk a lot that she continued to do dozens of dives all through her coaching.

However that wasn’t sufficient to coach within the pool. She wished to go orbital.