Almost Heaven ─ The Story of Women in Space

Almost Heaven tells the stories of the remarkable women who have bravely met twochallenges: the risk of space travel and the struggle to succeed in a man's world. From ValentinaTereshkova in 1963 and Sally Ride in 1983 to Kalpana Chawla and Lauren Clark on the last flight ofthe Columbia, these women made history. Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles brings the women of space to lifein this fascinating book, describing what motivates them, the pioneers who paved the way for them,and how their presence in the astronaut corps changed NASA. Setting her story against the backgroundof the Cold War and the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Kevles takes us from Cape Canaveralto Star City in Russia and back. She describes the years of rejection before women were allowed totrain as astronauts in the U.S. space program and the problems that female cosmonauts encountered inthe U.S.S.R. Kevles talks to the first women chosen by NASA to be astronauts in 1978 and to manywomen who have followed them. These women, she shows, have not only broken down barriers to join themost exclusive men's club in the world--the space program--they have become players in the greatestadventure of our time, the human exploration of space. This paperback edition includes Kevles'sthoughts on the 2005 Discovery mission and other recent developments in the space program as well asher reflections on the role of female astronauts today, and perhaps tomorrow.