Women with the Right Stuff

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2016

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The first footsteps on the Moon were one giant step for 'man', but from the early days of aeronautics women have also been involved in space travel. In Women with the Right Stuff, presenter, pilot and aspiring astronaut Wally Funk pays tribute to the pioneers, meets some of those involved within today’s space industry, and hears from the woman who might be among the crew for the first human mission to Mars. Wally has first hand experience of the early days of space travel in America. She undertook secret tests to become an astronaut in 1961 and, along with 12 other female pilots, passed the extremely tough physical tests to become an unofficial member of the ‘Mercury 13’ – the women who, given a chance, could have gone into space before Russia’s Valentina Tereshkova made history. Wally hears from astronauts Jessica Meier, Helen Sharman, Eileen Collins and Samantha Cristoforetti; mission control flight director Mary Lawrence; space historian David J Shayler; and shares her 1961 astronaut medical tests with NASA flight surgeon Shannan Moynihan. Over 50 years after those tests, Wally is still flying (she takes her producer above Dallas in a Cessna) but she is yet to get into space. However Wally is on the waiting list for one of the first commercial space tourism flights and is prepared to make history as yet another woman with the right stuff.

Image: A Wally Funk playing card, Wally was one of the original Mercury 13, Credit: BBC

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Gas is on, trim set, match the switch, go ahead and turn it on.
0:06.0	That's a girl.
0:08.0	We're going to try to get this thing started.
0:10.0	Yeah, we got it started.
0:15.0	Hello, my name is Wally Funk, and I've been flying airplanes for over 58 years.
0:22.0	Not bad since I'm only 45. In 1961, 13 people, including me passed the same tough physical tests as the first American
0:36.2	astronauts. These astronauts later became famous as the Mercury 7. The difference between them and us was that our test took
0:48.0	place in secret and the Mercury 13 as we're known now, were all women.
0:57.0	In Women with the Right Stuff, here on BBC World Service,
1:02.4	we celebrate the history, successes, challenges, and the future of women
1:09.4	in space, those who have set the bar and those like me who are still waiting to get there.
1:17.0	I first started saying I wanted to be an astronaut when I was five years old, but my first
1:21.4	distinct memory was when I was in the first grade and
1:23.6	our teacher asked us to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up and I drew an
1:26.7	astronaut on the surface of the moon.
1:28.1	While they say the sky is the limit when I see the footprints on the moon. Why do they say the sky is the limit
1:40.3	when I seen the footprints on the moon and I know the sky might be high.
1:47.0	There are six emergency exits on board this aircraft which include the main cabin door through which you entered and the door directly across from it.
1:52.0	My journey into space began at many airports
1:56.2	through the United States, and I'm still flying.
1:59.4	I'm going to travel to the
2:03.2	space center in Houston
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -3171 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.