NY Observer > NASA http://www.observer.com/taxonomy/term/26238/feed Articles from Observer.com en Hillary Promises the Moon and the Stars (and a Comeback) http://www.observer.com/2008/houston-hillary-promises-moon-and-stars

HOUSTON—Hillary Clinton contrasted herself with Barack Obama last night in a new way: she claimed to be more progressive on space exploration.

Houston is home to the Johnson Space Center, where NASA's manned spaceflight programs are based. And Clinton urged a large, fervent crowd at Delmar Fieldhouse to "be sure we have a president who wants to keep sending Americans into space so that we can continue to map the heavens."

"One of the differences" between her and Obama, Clinton said, is that she "want[s] Houston to remain the capital of the space race.”  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/houston-hillary-promises-moon-and-stars#comments Politics Barack Obama Hillary Clinton NASA Ohio Texas Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:30:32 -0500 Niall Stanage 65790 at http://www.observer.com Unlucky Jim: Carrey Fails to Thrill http://www.observer.com/node/36772 I admire Jim Carrey for always trying to break out of his own cage, the career-challenging attempts  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/36772#comments Arts & Culture Jim Carrey NASA Sandy Stewart Virginia Madsen Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500 Rex Reed 36772 at http://www.observer.com Fallout on Park Avenue: Grand Renovations Leave Neighbors in the Dust http://www.observer.com/node/38939 Shortly after my husband and I acquired new upstairs neighbors, we noticed water damage on our daugh  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/38939#comments Style Central Park Godiva Chocolatier Inc. NASA Sun, 04 Jun 2006 20:00:00 -0400 Pamela Weiler Grayson 38939 at http://www.observer.com Hillary's Girlhood http://www.observer.com/node/29239
cagle.jpg
Myrtle Cagle, astronaut trainee, circa 1961.
The other day, when Hillary's claim that she wrote to NASA and was told in a responding letter that the space agency "didn't take girls" struck us as implausible and poorly calculated because obviously checkable, our interest waned at the prospect of FOILing the correspondence.

First Lady in Space Sally Ride is only a few years younger, as James Taranto has pointed out, than Hillary Clinton.

But the really interesting thing is that someone just a few years younger is more likely to have gotten that letter than Hillary was.

In fact NASA was training women until 1962. Hillary was about 15 when they cancelled the Mercury 13 program, which trained a group of women to go into space only to be cancelled when the real prospect of sending them up was before NASA.

Here's the report from All Things Considered:
Out of a pool of women selected to undergo trials, 13 women endured and passed the battery of grueling physical and psychological tests -- the same tests the original Mercury 7 male astronauts underwent at the Lovelace Foundation in Albuquerque, N.M.

In some cases, the women scored better on the tests than their male counterparts.

The names of the women pilots and would-be astronauts -- among them, Jerrie Cobb, Wally Funk, Myrtle Cagle, Bernice "B" Steadman -- are largely lost to history.

The testing program was halted and eventually scrapped, in large part, Ackmann writes, because of a pervasive "boy's club" attitude at NASA.

It was several years before they returned to the idea of training women.

That means Hillary has to have written that letter when she was in high school or college, when other reports tell us she pretty well knew what she was going to do with herself. And she wasn't planning a career as an astronaut.

It's Sally that would have been a little girl when she got that discouraging note. Hillary would already have been having those heady political discussions around the Rodham family dinner table.

To be fair, nobody, including us, has asked for any more details about that letter. Hillary? You reading this? The comments section is open. You might also address the Sir Edmund Hillary dispute. - Tom McGeveran]]> http://www.observer.com/node/29239#comments Politics Edmund Hillary Hillary Clinton Myrtle Cagle NASA Fri, 05 May 2006 04:54:59 -0400 Observer Staff 29239 at http://www.observer.com Heroic Astronauts, Forgotten Americans http://www.observer.com/node/47099 Throughout the afternoon of Feb.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/47099#comments Columbia NASA New Jersey Rick Husband Sun, 09 Feb 2003 19:00:00 -0500 Terry Golway 47099 at http://www.observer.com Bubble Gum for the Brain: A Night at the Hotel Box Office http://www.observer.com/node/44552 I am not the target audience for summer blockbusters.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/44552#comments Bruce Willis Kevin Costner MTV Networks Company NASA Sun, 10 Jun 2001 20:00:00 -0400 Richard Brookhiser 44552 at http://www.observer.com A Drooping Dream Team … Whole Town's Gone to Pot http://www.observer.com/node/43235 A Drooping Dream Team  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/43235#comments Arts & Culture Brenda Blethyn Clint Eastwood Donald Sutherland NASA Sun, 06 Aug 2000 20:00:00 -0400 Rex Reed 43235 at http://www.observer.com Coal Miner's Son Dreams of NASA … Dennehy Is Big; Voice Like Shrapnel http://www.observer.com/node/41150 Coal Miner's Son Dreams of NASAHere's something unique to the point of bewilderment in the 1990's: a  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/41150#comments Arts & Culture Brian Dennehy Harold Arlen NASA Natalie Gamsu Sun, 28 Feb 1999 19:00:00 -0500 Rex Reed 41150 at http://www.observer.com