Rhea Hurrle Woltman (November 6, 1928 – February 15, 2021[1]) was an American pilot and one of the Mercury 13.
[2][3][4][5] Woltman was born in Minnesota as third of six children to Ellanora and Leo Hurrle, who had a farm near South Haven.
She was one of the thirteen women who passed all of the astronaut tests given at the Lovelace Clinic in 1961, making her a member of the Mercury 13.
[3] In 2007, the University of Wisconsin conferred on Woltman and the remaining Mercury 13 astronauts an Honorary Doctorate in Aeronautics, honoring them as pioneers in aviation history.
[2] Mercury 13 never reached their goal after the U.S. government shut down the women's program without their ever being able to fly a space mission.