Mercury 13 Tells the Story of Women Who NASA Wouldn't Let Go to Space
Entertainment
Netflix will soon release a documentary about a fascinating group of women—the “Mercury 13,” pilots who passed a battery of astronaut tests only for NASA to decline to include them in America’s space program. Check out the trailer above.
Netflix’s “Mercury 13” was directed by Brits David Sington and Heather Walsh, who collaborated a decade ago on the Science Channel’s docuseries “Moon Machines.” Borrowing from archival footage of man’s first lunar walk, NASA’s control room, and the picket lines of second-wave feminism, this documentary premiered Sunday at San Francisco International Film Festival. Another screening will take place later this spring at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
This isn’t the only Mercury 13 project in the works, either: “While Netflix’s project has flown mostly under the radar, Deadline reported in November that ‘The Post’ co-writer Liz Hannah would adapt Martha Ackmann’s 2003 memoir, “The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight” for its rival streaming service,” Indiewire added.
The Netflix documentary debuts April 20.
Join the discussion...