From PBS - Trace the history of women pioneers in the U.S. space program. Some, like aviators
Wally Funk and
Jerrie Cobb, passed the same grueling tests as male astronauts, only to be dismissed by NASA, the military and even
Lyndon B. Johnson, as a distraction. It wasn't until 1995 that
Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a spacecraft. The program includes interviews with Collins, as well as
Sally Ride's classmates
Shannon Lucid,
Rhea Seddon and
Kathryn D. Sullivan, and features
Mae C. Jemison, the first woman of color astronaut, and
Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station. The hour ends with the next generation of women engineers, mathematicians and astronauts--the new group of pioneers, like Marleen Martinez Sundgaard and
Dava Newman, who continue to make small but significant steps forward.
—Anonymous