The Untold Story of America’s First Women in Space
There are few people who have not heard of Neil Armstrong, the first man to put his foot on the moon in 1969, however not many have heard of the first woman in space, Sally Ride. Acclaimed space reporter Loren Grush’s in her extensively researched book, ‘The SIX’, ensures that the six elite women, who entered the NASA programme in 1978, in a field often hostile to their gender, are truly recognised for their many remarkable achievements.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s would-be-female astronauts were stonewalled by a bureaucracy intent on preventing change. However, with the rise of the women’s movement, social and political change, Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid and Rhea Seddon were selected from a candidate pool of 8,000 brilliant, courageous, passionate and driven women to join the America’s NASA Human Space programme. Despite attitudinal change, these women challenged by the male-dominated media of the day with its outright sexist attitudes, still had to overcome a sometimes chauvinistic work atmosphere.
The author not only details their training, the missions each undertook, the significant contribution each made, the Challenger disaster and its investigation (the death of teacher Christa McAuliffe which was watch by her students), but also gives the reader insight into their lives and dreams before, during and post their involvement in the space programme.
The author’s passion for this topic and her well-developed journalistic skills are very evident in this in engaging story of these six trailblazing women. She strikes the perfect balance between their wonderful personal stories of how their time at NASA affected them and their families and the technical details of their assigned missions.
This highly recommended book deserves to be on every school’s library shelves.
