Lovelace Health System is a healthcare company which operates six hospitals in New Mexico, five in Albuquerque and one in Roswell. It is one of New Mexico's largest employers with 3,659 employees as of 2020. The company grew out of the Lovelace Clinic founded in 1922, one of the pioneers of group medical practice in the United States. The clinic was best known for conducting physical evaluations of 32 astronaut candidates in 1959 which helped to select the Mercury Seven, the first Americans to travel into space. The clinic also administered testing for an unofficial "women in space" program, during which 13 women—later nicknamed the Mercury 13—were named as prospective astronauts, though they never traveled to space.