Patricia "Patty" Doyle was one of the initially 20 female astronaut candidates in NASA's program to recruit woman astronauts in 1970.
History[]
Patty was top of the ASCAN class along with Molly Cobb. Both of them were part of the aborted Mercury 13 project 7 years earlier. Patty and Molly were the only two women out of the Mercury 13 training program that were still flying aircraft. She was known to be an experienced helicopter pilot. During the ASCAN program, Patty ranked on the 2nd place behind Molly most of the time, except at the field test where she had beaten her by around 20 minutes.[2]
On October 15, 1970,[note 1] at day 200 of the ASCAN program, the only 5 remaining candidates had to fly the so called "flying bedstead", a lunar landing training vehicle (LLTV), at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. During her training flight, Patty lost control over the vehicle, crashed with her module and died in the process.[2]
Her death and the following bad press caused President Nixon to pull the plug on the female ASCAN program. Administrator Thomas Paine informed Deke Slayton about the president's decision the day Nixon announced the end of the Vietnam War. However, Deke was not ready to give up the program now, after he and the women candidates had spent so many months in testing, learning, and preparation. On October 27, 1970, without informing Paine or Shorty Powers beforehand, he called for a press conference where he introduced the remaining 4 women, Tracy Stevens, Molly Cobb, Ellen Waverly, and Danielle Poole, as America's next Apollo astronauts. Paine, not amused by Deke's move, said to him "you just made Nixon's shitlist".[3]
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
Day 200 of the ASCAN program may be either on Oct. 15 or Oct. 21, depending on what holidays are excluded (national only or also state holidays). Although both would be possible in the time flow of the episode, the former makes a little more sense as it leaves 8 days between Patty's funeral (4 days after her death) and Deke's press conference presenting 4 female astronauts on Oct. 27, instead of only 2.
Date calculations:
Appearances[]
| Episode | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1x03 | Nixon's Women |
Total episodes: 1
See also[]
References
- ↑ On day 200 of the ASCAN program, which started Jan. 6th → For All Mankind, season 1, episode 3, "Nixon's Women", at 57:40
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 For All Mankind TV series, season 1, episode 3, "Nixon's Women"
- ↑ For All Mankind TV series, season 1, episode 4, "Prime Crew"