Heavenly Bodies: The Intimate History of the Space Race and Second Wave Feminism

The human body has become an increasingly important site of analysis for environmental historians.  To further such efforts, this paper will explore the bodily history of Apollo astronauts during the 1960s and 1970s.  Throughout this period, scientists prodded, measured, exercised, and artificially stressed the physiques of those venturing into outer space.  These same scientists also hooked up astronauts to a host of simulators back on Earth to help acclimate astronaut bodies to the foreign environments of outer space.  While such efforts helped to launch the space race, this paper argues that they also sparked a political backlash by second wave feminists; although NASA administrators repeatedly argued that female bodies were physically unfit for space travel, women nevertheless continually demanded membership in NASA’s astronaut corps, and often used their bodies to do so.  During the early 1960s, for instance, thirteen women pilots passed an identical, civilian version of NASA’s astronaut physical examination, and in the mid-1970s a vocal group of feminists led by the National Organization for Women publicly argued that women’s bodies, in part because they were lighter than men’s, were better suited for space travel.  As a result of such efforts, not only did Sally Ride in 1983 become the first American woman in space, but the feminist movement also began embracing women’s distinct biology as a political strategy for equality.