Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race

I was lucky to come across this book among the many tottering piles at my favorite used bookstore, since space/astronauts and feminist history are two of my favorite topics! I did learn quite a lot about women's role (or lack of) in the 50s/60s during the Space Race, and I experienced quite a few instances of rage at NASA and even some of the women depicted in the book because holy gender discrimination, Batman! It is interesting to read about the struggles these women went through just to get a chance to fly in space (they flew thousands of hours and passed the astronaut tests, in some cases better than the men) and compare that to how Sally Ride came to be the first American woman in space (her excellent biography by Lynn Sherr (Sally show more Ride: America's First Woman in Space) depicted a NASA finally open to gender inclusivity, yet still woefully and hilariously ignorant to how women operate - some engineers asked Ride if 100 tampons were enough for 5 days in space).

I enjoyed how detailed Nolen was in describing the women's histories and individual journeys toward being the first "lady astronaut", and the chapter devoted to the hearings on whether or not to allow women to continue taking the astronaut tests and be able to fly in space. This book was published in 2002, and I would love an updated edition that talks more about the female astronauts, scientists, and pilots now working for NASA. All in all, an interesting (if somewhat meandering) history of the first women who had aspirations to fly in space. show less

A little-known story that gives lots of historical detail yet is highly readable. You'll never watch _The Right Stuff_ the same way again.