I feel like Trudy was just born at the wrong time. In January 1959, Cooper received unexpected orders to report to Washington, D.C. On February 2, 1959, Cooper attended a NASA briefing on Project Mercuryand the part astronaut… The Netflix documentary Mercury 13 … A model of composure at A.W.C. It’s all these things all at once, and that’s what actually makes it feel real. chairman of an Emergency Egress Committee which was responsible for Mercury was interested in him, too. Koppel also describes friction between the Mercury and Gemini wives, at least initially. [11] She and Scott Carpenter divorced, and she moved with their children to Bethesda, Maryland. The pain and the frustration and the anger of missed opportunity, but not even given opportunities, is something I really wanted to show because you can hold all those things at once. America’s space age officially began on April 9, 1959, when the Mercury Seven were announced: Scott Carpenter, Gordo Cooper, John Glenn, Gus … There are astronauts/engineers, and there are wives/widows. Trudy Cooper was more than just an astronaut’s wife. They got married in Honolulu, in August 29, 1947. She knew very well the proper codes of behavior, taught to her by her Navy-wife mother—how to dress, how to serve tea to an officer, how never to go to an official function without her white gloves, pearls on, and calling cards. Gordon Cooper played a crucial role in the Mercury project, as he piloted the last and longest space flight in 1963. The period drama, starring Patrick J. So there’s the holding of those dualities. Betty Grissom worked hard to put her husband Gus through engineering school. They were selected at the same time that the Mercury 7 men were being tested to run through all these tests to become astronauts. Known as Mother Marge, she ran the Astronaut Wives Club. Both The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 portray a gulf between men and women in the space program. I think the other part of it was knowing that she didn’t necessarily sign up for that part of it. I think it’s gravely lacking in so much of the media that we get in this world. The real women who inspired the show in 1959 (left): Jo Schirra (clockwise from top left), Annie Glenn, Rene Carpenter, Trudy Cooper, Louise Shepard, Betty Grissom and Marjorie Slayton. In 1963, Cooper piloted the longest and last Mercury spaceflight, Mercury-Atlas 9. They were better suited to be astronauts than men. ... 13. By Brooke Bajgrowicz 2020-10-09 13:19:36 UTC. It gave me a lot of empathy for that position. I think she must have known that. They met in college in Hawaii, where they were both in a flight club together. NASA Trudy Cooper, wife of Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, and their teenage daughters, Cam and Jan, watch as the astronaut lifts off during the Gemini 5 mission, August 21, 1965. So that was really important to me and also learning about Mercury 13. Rene Carpenter (pronounced to rhyme with keen)—wife of Scott Carpenter. Eloise Mumford: Yes, she was born before her time, and yet, we still face so much inequality in our culture. It was the beginning of when television was really taking off in that way and celebrity was sort of taking off in that way. He asked her to come back when they were separated because he was being selected to be one of the astronauts. I don’t know if author Tom Wolff even mentions the women’s testing program. Cooper's first flight began on May 15, 1963, when he was launched as the pilot of MA-9, the last Mercury mission. Gung ho as all get out, she intended to take her Frank to the stars, because everyone knew the tighter the marriage, the better the flight position. Eloise Mumford stars as Trudy Cooper, wife to Mercury 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper, on the Disney+ series, The Right Stuff. The Right Stuff is an American historical drama streaming television series, loosely based on the 1979 book of the same name by Tom Wolfe and its 1983 film adaptation, that premiered on October 9, 2020 on Disney+.It explores the origins and growth of the United States' space program.On April 3, 2021, Disney+ canceled the series due to a redesign in the NatGeo's channel focus. It was so fun to work with him. Aka: Wally. Going forward, how does Trudy maneuver her way through that group as they have to deal with the fact that husbands may not come home when they go into space? I’m sure that’s not what it actually was. JFK made it clear that platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter was his favorite astronaut wife. Cooper, in his Faith 7 capsule, orbited the Earth 22 times and logged more time in space than all five previous Mercury astronauts combined. (Decades later, they would be dubbed the "Mercury 13.") It would be really hard. Betty Grissom—Gus Grissom’s wife. The 30-year-old mother of four had a welcoming smile, green eyes, and deep dimples. I always fight for lots of women to women interaction on screen. Others, like Gordon Cooper’s wife Trudy, were pulled back in to convince NASA that life at home was peachy and drama-free. The Right Stuff series begins on the morning of the Mercury-Redstone 3 spaceflight at Cape Canaveral in 1961. Trudy moved away with their two daughters, but pretty soon Cooper was begging her to come back, not because he really loved and missed her, but because NASA expected him to be a family man. Like in the TV series, The Right Stuff true story reveals that Gordon Cooper had a prolonged affair with a married woman. Like so many women at the time, she was asked to give up her career and her passion in order to support her husband. Jo Schirra—wife of Wally Schirra, the practical jokester of the astronaut corps. var d = new Date() Jane Conrad—wife of Charles “Pete” Conrad, otherwise known as New Nine astronaut “Princeton Pete.” Jane was tall and model thin and had attended Bryn Mawr. Louise Shepard—wife of Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space. Like Miss America contestants, she had her “talent.” Annie was the Ultimate Astrowife. They’re not just a group. How does Trudy continue to handle the fame as the pressure on her marriage increases?Eloise Mumford: I think it’s very similar to the way it is now where there’s a fine line between wanting to be available and wanting to protect your privacy. So often in our exploration of “the astronaut wives,” they’ve been seen as a monolith. “Everyone wants to touch him,” Sue mused about her spaceman, Alan. If she hadn’t come back to support him, he literally couldn’t have gone. John : Glenn Jr. One of the Nation's Mercury astronauts. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Do Not Sell My Personal Information. They always shared their concerns. Because it’s not a simple decision. Aka: Gus. That was a group of women I had no knowledge of, but it’s true history. Eloise Mumford: You bring up another huge point. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with Eloise Mumford about the complexities behind Trudy Cooper. In the first few episodes, we really start to peel back the layers of Trudy and Gordo’s relationship. We had to do a lot of really intense stuff together. I’m really happy that our show gets into that part of history because I think it’s really important. To keep spirits high and light, all the wives had their ways of dealing with the press. The Astronaut Wives Club was an informal support group of women, sometimes called Astrowives, whose husbands were members of the Mercury 7 group of astronauts. He’s an incredible actor, and beyond that, just a really wonderful human. At that time, it just wasn’t possible to do the things that she could have done today because of how women were viewed in society back then. © The seven women that the story follows are the wives of the Mercury 7, which were the first seven men selected to be a part of NASA's space program. Throughout the season, we really explore the roller coaster of their relationship that has great passion. It’s explored through the lens of Trudy Cooper (Odette Annable), a progressive astrowife. Walter: Schirra: One of the Nation's Mercury astronauts. Alan: Shepard Jr. One of the Nation's Mercury astronauts. Part of what really excites me about our show is exploring the female relationships, not just with their husbands, but also with each other behind the scenes. We still face so much inequality in our exploration of “ the wives. Was a really interesting in her own Cape Canaveral in 1961 of dealing with the Mercury Project, as piloted. 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