Have you ever heard of the Mercury 13? I've been fascinated by space travel and astronauts since I was little. I've been to Florida to watch two Shuttle lift-offs. I regularly check NASA's site for news and updates. The Right Stuff is one of my favorite movies of all time and I watched every episode of From the Earth to the Moon, and all this time, I had no idea that NASA ever conducted astronaut tests on women in the early 60's. Nor did I know that the women kicked ass on many of the tests, acheiving in some cases better results than the men. But the tests were cancelled and the women were sent home and Congress ruled future astronauts would be selected from the pool of all-male military test pilots. [Insert rant about sexism here which I can't bear to write right now, I'm too upset by the quote on page 3 from Rep. Anfuso stating the women would be necessary in space exploration since we couldn't colonize other planets without them! Argh!]