American Women Dream of Spaceflight in Mercury 13 Trailer

In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, but the frontier could and should have been broken a lot sooner. This is the subject of Netflix’s upcoming documentary Mercury 13, which tells the story of the 13 women who, in 1961, passed the same screening process undergone by the men in the Mercury 7 program.

However, when the time came to pick the teams that would undertake the first manned spaceflights, NASA excluded women from the process. “If we’re going to send a human being to space, we should send the one most qualified,” says one of the Mercury 13 in the trailer for the upcoming documentary that will tell the story of these women robbed of the chance to fulfill their dreams of going to space.

Check out the full trailer…

And here’s the full synopsis:

After rigorous testing in 1961, a small group of skilled female pilots are asked to step aside when only men are selected for spaceflight.

Mercury 13 hits Netflix on April 20th. It is directed by David Sington (The Fear of 13, The Flaw) and Heather Walsh (Unexpected, Teen Mom).