Project Mercury

Project Mercury was the first American human spaceflight program carried out by NASA.

House Committee Hearing on Gender Discrimination
The House Committee Hearing took place in the month of July 1962. These hearings would investigate the possibility of gender discrimination conducted by NASA.

Major advocate against the program, Jacqueline Cochran is discredited due to evidence that she only turnt against Mercury 13, due to envy that she would be outshined as America’s number one female aviator.

Points regarding the then 13 not being test pilots or having engineering degrees discredited as women couldn’t be test pilots (but these 13 had the capabilities of them) and the latter did not apply to other pilots who became astronauts.

It is decided that Mercury 13 was to be adopted by NASA, to establish the first woman in space ahead of the USSR, after the house committee was convinced that women were just as capable of going into space. Increased funding to compensate, 1963 budget to be $3 billion [unlike OTL’s 2.5 billion]

Missions

 * MR-3
 * MR-4
 * MA-6
 * MA-7
 * MA-8
 * MA-9 " " (February 1963) (Jerrie Cobb) - First woman in space
 * MA-10 "Faith 7" (May 1963) (Cooper) [OTL MA-9]
 * MA-11 " " (August 1963) (Wally Funk)
 * MA-12 " " (January 1964) (Sarah Gorelick)
 * MA-13 " " (March 1964) (Jean Hixon)
 * MA-14 " " (June 1964) (Rhea Woltman)
 * MA-15 " " (October 1964) (Bernice Steadman)
 * MA-16 " " (January 1965) (Myrtle Cagle)