In the 1960s, NASA was hesitant to send women into space. There were concerns that women could bleed to death when having their periods and would be too ‘temperamental’ to handle a ‘complicated machine’. They decided women wouldn’t be sent to space, but Congress passed the Equal Opportunity Employment Act in 1972, and by 1978, the first 6 women were brought into the astronaut corps.
NASA’s Group 8 was the first to bring women into the astronaut corps.
Sally Ride in orbit