Sarah (Almost) In The Stars

With her student pilot permit tucked into the pocket of her navy slacks, then 16-year-old Sarah Ratley soared over the shadowy mountains of Denver in a red and white two-seater aircraft called the Cessna 140 . The buildings – and her problems – got smaller and smaller as she looked out the plane window and down from the clouds.

In that unbothered bliss up in the sky, she was the pilot and the one in control — she was Sarah Ratley. But when she was back on the ground in the condemnatory society of 1947, she was limited to being known as the daughter, the blonde and the woman.

The identity of a woman was summed up by her measurements, hair color and relationship to men. But Ratley didn’t let that stop her. As a pilot, she didn’t want to just stop at the clouds — she wanted to go to space.

Ratley took one of the first steps to getting women into space by being a part of Mercury 13 — a group of 13 American women who participated in a program with the goal of sending women up to space like the men of Project Mercury. Once a pioneer in her time period, she now proudly watches women’s rights become more prominent while supporting her granddaughter, senior Laura Ratley-Baeza, as she grows up.

When Ratley had returned home from a tour of Europe with a group of women pilots in 1961, she received a phone call asking if she could show up in Albuquerque, New Mexico the next day to start the first phase of physical testing. Dr. Randolph Lovelace — the man behind Mercury 13 — had scouted her because she had over 1500 hours of flying time.

Lovelace asked her if she’d like to go to the moon.

“I thought it was a wonderful opportunity,” Ratley said. “It was exploring new horizons and doing something no one had done before.”

Leaving behind her cubicle job at AT&T, Ratley travelled to Albuquerque for her physical examination. Pulmonary function tests were performed, every tooth had its picture taken and 10 degrees Fahrenheit water was injected into her ear for vertigo testing. She was placed in a sensory deprivation chamber where the water was exactly her body temperature to mimic what they thought being in space would be like. X-ray after X-ray was taken of every bone in her body.

All 13 women, including Ratley, participated in this testing willingly. And they all had one goal: to get the moon.

Ratley and the other women in this project performed the same or better than the men who had previously taken the same tests, according to pulmonologist Kathy Ryan. One of the other women participating in the testing set the record for staying in the sensory deprivation chamber for over nine hours — while most men tested could only go around six hours before hallucinating.

After passing the first stage, plans were made for the women to come to Pensacola, Florida to further the testing. Before they could pack their suitcases, the women got a telegram saying the arrangements were cancelled. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had shut down the program because the government and NASA were in agreement — there was no place for women in space.

The impact of these women going against the prejudice, however, lived on. The idea of women even getting physically tested to go into space was something that had never been done before — something newsworthy. In April of 2018, Netflix released a documentary called “Mercury 13,” telling their story to the public.

“Let’s face it, [they were] going up there in an untested system,” friend of the women Bob Steadman said in the Netflix documentary. “I give the women the same credit [as the men] for the same courage. Their willingness to take part in the unknown was equally as courageous as that of the men.”

NASA has also started to recognize them for their bravery through invitations to many events such as special tours and VIP dinners. Woman astronauts like Eileen Collins have thanked Ratley and the other women that led the way for female astronauts by putting the idea of women going to space into the public mind.

“Once there was a room full of male astronauts and they introduced us to the crowd and everyone clapped which made us feel very, very proud,” Ratley said. “Eileen Collins has said that she stood on our shoulders [and] has always been very outgoing to us. The women astronauts accept our group as one of their own.”

Her impact shines through to younger generations of her family, including her daughter and granddaughter. She has been by their sides while they’re finding their own passions — varying from all-star cheerleading to college enrollment.   

“She has impacted others to persevere and shown that woman can do anything,” Laura Ratley-Baeza said. “She’s influenced a lot of people, including me.”