posted 11-17-2017 06:05 PM               

Amazon developing 'Mercury 13' as series about women tested for spaceflight

The true life story of 13 women who underwent the same medical testing as NASA's Mercury astronauts at the start of the space age is being developed as a new miniseries for Amazon.

"Mercury 13" will tell the history of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs), the women pilots who were recruited for a privately-financed program by the Lovelace Foundation, the same clinic that devised the tests to screen the United States' first astronauts. The Amazon series is being based on journalist Martha Ackmann's 2003 book, "The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight" (Random House).

...Amazon's "Mercury 13" is the second television miniseries focused on the FLATs to be announced this year. Deadline reported in February that actress Jessica Chastain ("The Martian," "Intersteller") had teamed with screenwriter Todd Komarnicki ("Sully") and Christina Wayne, producer of "I'm Dying Up Here" on Showtime, to develop an event series about the Mercury 13 for ITV Studios America. Chastain is executive producing.