Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled for launch on Thursday, and 77-year-old John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, will be onboard.

Noticeably absent from the mission, in some Americans’ minds, are Myrtle Cagle, a 73-year-old who flies a single-engine Cessna, and 12 other women who were secretly trained as astronauts in the 1960s but were never selected for a mission.

Including Glenn as a member of the Discovery crew is all about public relations.

NASA needs to promote its space program because Americans seem to have lost most of their interest in the launches.

Glenn is a hero to Americans, and he is the most widely recognized American astronaut, so it makes sense to send him.

However, the decision to give Glenn a seat on the shuttle has generated some negative feedback.

Some people are wondering why NASA didn’t give one of the Mercury 13 a chance instead of sending someone who has already been in space.

Our culture needs heroes, and John Glenn definitely fits the part.

But we live in a country which is more than half female and we all need female heroes, too.

It is important for men and women both to see women in space as national heroes.

NASA has included women on most missions in recent years, and Chiaki Mukai is going on this one.

But if NASA is serious about engaging the interest of our nation in the space program, then they need to remember the contributions of women as astronauts and not just “ladies in waiting.”

It would have been good public relations for NASA if the organization had decided to send both John Glenn and Cagle or one of her contemporaries.

It’s pointless to harp on past policies and actions, but why not promote the new policies which are including women by giving Cagle a second chance?

“Naturally, I’ve got the desire,” Cagle said in a Oct. 27 article in The Des Moines Register. “I suppose it’s a weak hope that I’d still get to space.”

It’s too late to send one of the Mercury 13 on this mission, but NASA should consider finding out if any of them are still fit and otherwise qualified to go on the next mission.

Glenn returning to space is a great story.

Sending one of the Mercury 13 for the first time would have been better.