Bernice Steadman, part of NASA’s ‘Mercury 13’ dies, AP “A woman who was among 13 selected for training as possible astronauts in the early 1960s has died at her northern Michigan home. She was 89. Bernice Steadman was a member of the so-called “Mercury 13.” NASA dropped the program, and it was 22 more years before a U.S. woman went to space.”