The true story of America’s first six women astronauts.
“Vivid.” —The Guardian
“Engrossing.” —Booklist
“Suspenseful, meticulously observed, enlightening.” —Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures
The Story
In this account of America’s first women astronauts, Loren Grush skillfully weaves a story about desire: not a nation’s desire to conquer space, but the longing of six women to reach heights that were forbidden to them.
When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, the agency excluded women from the corps. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed unqualified for space flight.
Eventually, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls. From a candidate pool of 8,000, six elite women were selected in 1978: Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathryn Sullivan, Rhea Seddon, and Shannon Lucid.
Why this is a modern space history classic:
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The Shuttle Era: Moves beyond the Apollo missions to look at the dawn of the Space Shuttle program.
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Deeply Researched: Written by Loren Grush, a reporter who grew up the daughter of two NASA engineers.
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Humanizes the Heroes: Goes beyond the press conferences to show the rigorous training, media scrutiny, and personal sacrifices these women made.
🔭 From the Desk of Paul Bracken:
"We often look back at the Apollo moon landings as the golden age, but the Class of '78 was when space truly opened up. This book does an incredible job of profiling the women who finally broke that glass ceiling. If you liked Hidden Figures, this is the next chapter of that history."
