You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
alternatehistory.com
(I've tried this before but got essentially no responses, so I'll give it another shot)
If NASA took astronaut groups in the period between groups 7 and 8 (ie, during the '70s), who do you see as likely candidates? Due to the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement, I see it as quite likely that NASA begins to hire minority and female astronauts, but surely some of the ones hired IOTL (in group 8) would not have been available earlier for some reason or another (Sally Ride, for instance, would have been doing her Ph.D. during the early part of the decade). So presumably different candidates could have come up. The remaining Mercury 13, perhaps? I know the Air Force was planning to fly Robert H. Lawrence, but he died in an accident in 1967. So who else might have flown?