Current Affairs - Persons - Discussion

NASA's first female astronaut candidate, pilot Jerrie Cobb, has recently died. Cobb died in Florida at age 88 last month. News of her death came on April 18, 2019 from journalist Miles O'Brien, serving as a family spokesman. In year 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing. Altogether, 13 women passed the arduous physical testing and became known as the Mercury 13. But NASA already had its Mercury 7 astronauts, all jet test pilots and all military men. None of the Mercury 13 ever reached space, despite Cobb's testimony in 1962 before a Congressional panel.