jerrie cobb's round in the tank shattered every previous record. several hundred subjects had already participated in the experiment and six hours in the water was thought to be the absolute limit of tolerance. cobb remained in sensory r run finally terminated by shirley's assistant. dr. shirley was astonished by cobb's ability to withstand solitude. equally extraordinary was the taped transcript of what cobb said in the tank. the reporters monologue went on. cobb's comments during a period of more than twice as long filled only two sheets of paper. in his conclusion of his report to dr. shirley stated that he believed jerrie cobb possessed extraordinary, if not unique qualities for service as an astronaut. cobb's friend rep coffey who interviewed shirley for an article on her run in the tank, the psychologist offered the most revealing analysis shedding professional medical jargon, shirley went right to the point. jerrie cobb is >> when they were able to get an oklahoma for the navy nasa stepped in and said, no, we don't want the women to go furthe

paragraph 8 said jerrie cobb is not too happy about that. like most people i said, who is jerrie cobb. i grew up in a space family. my father worked on the space program. i thought i knew something about space and project mercury. it came as a great astonishment to me i didn't know. so i began to find out. yes? >> i was wondering, how many women of mercury 13 are still around, how many you were able to interview. how painful was it to revisit? >> they were open to talk about it, and it was painful for them to relive it. of the 13, 11 are still work and alive. i met and spoke with all of them. for the ones who passed away, i spoke to their family members. this was an important center of their lives. they were eager to tell the story they feel much of it has been largely forgotten. it was difficult for them to relive the disappointment. yes? >> 1983 was the first time a woman went up. >> american woman. >> sally ride. >> we were there. i'm going to give you this hat that commemorates -- >> oh, my goodness. >> what did the women continue to do

you'll be hearing about jerry cobb, who was the number one woman pilot among this group, america's best hope to be the first woman astronaut in the world, as well as two simply astonishing physicians, aerospace docks, randi lovelace of the lovelace foundation that joan mentioned who along with his colleague, brigadier donald flickinjer of the air force, designed the medical tests for john glenn, allen p shepard and all the rest, ran them through the tests at the love lace clinic in new mexico, and then helped select those men for america's first astronauts. so you'll be hearing about don flickinger and randi lovelace, geri cobb, as well as be introduced to jaums webb who during that time was the head of nasa. and this is a scene that sort of sets up the mood of the country, space fever that was just engulfing the united states in the early 1960's, and a particular moment that happened at a most inauspicious place, a chamber of commerce luncheon, a chicken and green peas luncheon in oklahoma city in 1961. it begins on a snowy january afternoon a few days after john kennedy had been sworn