QUARANTINE BLOG # 175

September 21, 2020

If my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a wagon.  “If” is a game we like to play, and I’ve been playing it for the last several days.  If coronavirus had not docked the cruise industry, and Carnival had not scrapped the Carnival Fantasy, Bonnie and I would have sailed on the Fantasy a week ago today for a partial Panama Canal cruise (to the canal, float on the lake, back out the locks and head for home via some more stops).  And we would have been home Thursday.  If.

With that thought in mind, I’ve been looking at the announced potential restart dates for the five cruise lines whose decks we’ve walked.  Carnival says they are going out November 1, as is Celebrity, and Norwegian Cruise Line.  Princess has canceled most of its cruises through December 15, and the annual world cruise of Pacific Princess (our overall favorite ship) has been canceled for 2021.  Holland America (our overall favorite cruise line) is looking at December 16.

Other cruise lines of interest show Disney hoping to start December 12.  Cunard Liens (the Queens of the ocean) will not set sail until March 25, 2021 with  Elizabeth; April 18, 2021 for Mary 2; and Victoria on May 16, 2021.

👉  We looked at women in space Tuesday through Thursday, and I promised one more episode: the Mercury 13.  I did the initial research for this in 2014 for a cruise on the Explorer of the Seas (one of the stops was Port Canaveral, so it was a natural).  Twice when I’ve given this talk I’ve been approached by former employees of NASA who said they’d never heard of the Mercury 13.  And once, Christa McAuliffe’s cousin was in the audience.  So, here we go.

Six decades ago, women were considered too weak, too emotional, too, well, womanly, to participate in America’s astronaut program. And, of course, they simply weren’t qualified.

Meet Geraldyn Cobb. In June 1957, Geraldyn (Jerrie) Cobb’s goal was set to the break the world altitude record for lightweight aircraft of 27,000 feet. She was hoping for 30,000.

She knew that at several miles up breathing became difficult, vision was impaired, and a pilot could slip into unconsciousness. She also knew that – as absurd as it seemed – she had to worry about her appearance as well. Unspoken social customs for women pilots dictated that she wear a dress and high heels under her protective clothing. So dressed, she flew to 37,010 feet. By 1960, she had 7,000 hours of flying time and held 3 world aviation records.

Dr. W. Randolph Lovelace II, chairman of NASA’s Life Sciences Committee, and Brigadier General Donald Flickinger of the Air Force helped design the medical testing procedures for the astronaut candidates. Lovelace and Flickinger were interested in testing women for potential spaceflight. Jerrie Cobb became their test subject.

If their results proved that a woman scored well on the same tests that the Project Mercury astronauts underwent, Flickinger would approach NASA with the data.

In February 1960, Jerrie Cobb began astronaut tests. In all, doctors scheduled a total of seventy-five tests to measure the range of her body’s capability.

Initial indicators suggested that she had done very well, but Dr. Lovelace knew that NASA would view Jerrie Cobb’s exceptional test scores as a fluke and not representative of women pilots in general. He began compiling a secret list of women pilots who had racked up more than a 1,000 hours in the air, not an easy task in the 1960s, since women were not allowed to fly for the military and were not being hired by airlines. He eventually selected 12: Jerri Sloan, Jan Dietrich and Marion Dietrich. Wally Funk, Gene Nora Stumbough, Janey Hart, Bea Steadman, Rhea Hurrle, Sarah Gorelick, Myrtle Cagle, Irene Leverton, and Jean Hixson. Click here for my introduction to them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-FdltkOLvA.

But in September 1961, NASA told Lovelace that sending an American woman into space was not a priority. The official statement was, “NASA does not at this time have a requirement for such a program.” As far as NASA was concerned, the case of women in space was closed.

On June 16, 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Tereshkova was a textile worker. She was not a pilot.

In 1978, NASA selected 35 new astronauts from a pool of 8,079 applicants. They included NASA’s first African-American, Asian-American, and six women astronauts. Sally Ride was the one who would make space history. She lifted off the launch pad on June 18, 1983, and became the first American woman in space.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton announced that NASA had selected Eileen Collins to become the first woman to command the shuttle. A 42-year-old Air Force lieutenant colonel, Collins slid into the left seat for her history-making flight in July 1999.

On the ground at Cape Canaveral, watching the liftoff of the space shuttle Columbia, were Jerrie Cobb, Janey Hart, Wally Funk, Jerri Sloan Truhill, Sarah Gorelick Ratley, Irene Leverton, Bea Steadman, and Rhea Hurrle Woltman. Collins had invited the surviving Mercury 13 women to be her personal guests at blastoff. She wanted them to share in the celebration because she genuinely believed the day also belonged to them. Without the Mercury 13, she declared, the country would not be celebrating women astronauts and the first female shuttle commander.

Because of limited space in the blog, you are reading a very condensed story. To read the 13s qualifications, the appeal to Vice President Lyndon Johnson, a hearing before a House committee, and more, click on the lengthier story I’ve compiled http://davidsisler.com/TheMercury13.pdf.

👉  Four women have given their lives for the program – Judy Resnik and Christa McAuliffe on Challenger in 1986, and Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark on Columbia in 2003.

Judy Resnick

Christa McAuliffe

Kalpana Chawla

Laurel Clark

👉  Today’s message from the Crawfordville pulpit: “Better Than Our Wildest Dreams”
http://davidsisler.com/christian/BetterThanOurWildestDreams.mp3.

👉  Today’s close is from Greg Laurie.

During a call-in segment of a radio program I was doing, a man asked, “Does there come a point in the Christian life where somehow you just don’t get tempted to think evil thoughts anymore?”

Some believers are surprised to discover that the Christian life is not a playground but a battleground. It isn’t easy being a Christian, because immediately we discover that we have an adversary, the Devil, who wants to bring us down. The spiritual battle is raging every single day.

We need to put our spiritual armor on. We need to suit up. As we are told in Ephesians 6, “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (verses 11–12 NLT).

And you know what? This wrestling match won’t end until we are safe in the arms of Jesus. Wouldn’t it be great to think that as a Christian, you somehow could reach a plateau at a certain moment in your life where you would be above it all and no longer be vulnerable? This spiritual fight will rage on until the final day. So keep your armor on. Be aware and alert. And constantly move forward.

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