Almost Heaven: Women On The Frontiers Of Space [Hardcover]

Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2003

When we first blasted our way into space a generation ago, we did so with men from each of the superpowers. Women were excluded from one of the most exciting adventures of the century-and not because they weren't up to the challenge. In 1962, three accomplished female pilots took their case before the U.S. Congress, but they were dismissed as unpatriotic. We were in a Cold War-a space race-and NASA had already chosen the Mercury Seven to represent America. In Almost Heaven, acclaimed writer Bettyann Kevles gives voice to the women of the space age-women who had the "right stuff," but had to struggle to prove it. Through intensive interviews and meticulous research, Kevles illuminates what makes these women tick. What were their unique concerns as female astronauts? Were they truly accepted into the astronaut corps, or were they merely "tokens"? She also poses a question that will affect generations to come: Is NASA preparing women as well as men for travel beyond Earth's orbit, or is the research still biased toward men?The stories of these forty women, told here for the first time in rich and colorful detail, explore the convergence of culture and science-and suggest the battle is far from over.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Yale historian Kevles (Naked to the Bone) does a superb job of describing the challenges faced by female astronauts since the beginning of the space age and viewing those challenges in light of the changing status of women in society at large. She argues that NASA's sexism, from its inception in 1958 until 1978, when it first accepted female astronaut candidates actually destined to go into space, reflected popular opinion. Pressure from the growing women's movement coupled with waning popular support for space exploration led NASA to open its ranks to women. Kevles and the numerous female astronauts she interviewed assert that once the decision was made to welcome women, NASA did so quite well. Institutional sexism was not overly common, although the behavior of some male astronauts often left much to be desired. Also looking at the U.S.S.R. (and later Russia), Kevles asserts that although Valentina Tereshkova was sent into orbit in 1963, women were neither accepted as equals nor treated fairly either institutionally or personally. Kevles describes many of the obstacles that were overcome by the 40 women who have been in space as well as the excitement associated with space travel. With 40 stories to be told, however, none are presented in great detail. Nonetheless, Kevles provides a fresh look at the U.S. attempt to explore space while reflecting on injustice at home. 8 pages of b&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American

"It was midnight at Cape Canaveral on July 18, 1999, and still hot and humid." The opening sentence takes us to a launch of the space shuttle Columbia--the first time in history that a woman, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Eileen Collins, would be in command. The final pages describe Columbia's fatal flight in January 2003 with two female astronauts on board. And from beginning to end, this book is riveting. Meticulously researched, the story of women's struggle to gain a place in space is framed by the historical context of cold war competition and the American women's movement. Within this larger frame, the entire sweep of women's fight "to decide for themselves what risks they were willing to take" plays out: The first 13 women (the FLATS, or Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees) who tried and failed to become astronauts in the early 1960s. The Soviet women cosmonauts, who faced their own version of sexism. At long last, in 1983, Sally Ride's historic flight. Right up to the present, when there are "so many women astronauts that few people recognize their names." References to popular culture--Barbarella, Star Trek, the criticism of Ride's shorts--are often as telling as the key events. It is a testament to the skill of Kevles, who teaches history at Yale University, that the story never slows or loses focus despite its scope and its many threads.

Editors of Scientific American

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (October 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738202096
• ISBN-13: 978-0738202099
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,337,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good book? Almost., December 12, 2003

By 

"cleave35" (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Almost Heaven: Women On The Frontiers Of Space (Hardcover)

This is an interesting book with a lot to say on the subject of women astronauts. On the whole, the events and the people involved in them are very well summarized, far better than many other books in fact. There are some wonderful little vignettes into how the 1978 women astronauts were integrated into the Texas social scene, which were very well observed. Pat Cowings, often overlooked as the first woman to undertake serious astronaut training directed by NASA (though she was never selected as an astronaut), gets her correct place in history at last. It also puts the FLAT medical tests in their correct place as a minor footnote in space history. It lists the womens' movement accomplishments and the changes they brought as interesting background, not allowing the politics to overtake the human story. The misreading of S. Christa McAuliffe's respected place in Concord's educational community hits a minor jarring note, but overall Holtzmann Kevles is a very accomplished writer, gets the facts straight and tells an interesting story very well.

Having said that, I really do wish that "friends of the author" would not make postings on these pages and pretend that the book is error-free. Wishing the mistakes weren't there does not make them disappear. The copy I picked up (from a book store, not a pre release copy) has all the errors that other reviewers have been kind enough to post here for the edification of the prospective purchaser (and, let's hope, the author and publisher). A simple read would find them. Just as examples, the misinformation on Lebedev is on page 87, the misdating of the first shuttle launch on page 94, the error about the last woman to Mir on page 163, spelling NASA's name wrong on page 252, Cobb's name wrong on page 253, Chaffee's name wrong on page 221, and the howling error of the wrong date of the Apollo 11 moon landing in the book's very first paragraph. I noticed another mistake also, on page 141 - Helen Sharman, like all other cosmonauts, was fitted into her space suit before her bus ride to the launch pad, not afterwards as Holtzmann Kevles believes.

I hope that the author's friends have the courage to tell her what needs correcting, and not continue to defend the indefensible. Fiction writing is allowed to play with events, and even history is open to interpretation. Holtzmann Kevles' theme, her message, is worthy and dead on. However getting basic names and dates correct (and they are mostly subjective errors of fact, not simple "typos" here ) in a history book is, I believe, essential. Save your money for a corrected second edition, assuming the publisher does the right thing.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars great story with a few glaring gaffes, January 27, 2004

By 

S. R. Cowan (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Almost Heaven: Women On The Frontiers Of Space (Hardcover)

Let me start by adding that I just received my copy of this amazing story a couple of weeks ago, and was awed by it. Quite a wonderful read about a most amazingly hidden aspect of the space program.

Okay, several have previously stated that there are no major technical errors in the book. On page 46, when describing Skylab, she notes that the pace station was 17 cubic feet, divided into two separate levels. Since the trunk of my Jetta is 13 cubic feet, I decided to check this out with NASA. Skylab had a habitable volume of 12,700 cubic feet. That is a major error that can not go unnoticed.

If this book is republished, I hope this type of minor error gets corrected. If not, poor editing will continue to diminish an otherwise important topic and marvelously crafted tome.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Puzzling., February 2, 2004

By 

Rose (Dayton) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Almost Heaven: Women On The Frontiers Of Space (Hardcover)

I am surprised just how much is wrong in this book. I am even more puzzled by the unquestioning support given to it by luminaries such as John Klineberg and Mary Ellen Strote. While a writer on health and fitness topics should not be expected to have a thorough knowledge of space history and know how many errors this book contains, I would have thought that Klineberg, former director of Loral and the Goddard Space Flight Center, would have read it a little closer and spotted the many errors. It's puzzling to see how many glowing reviews this book is receiving despite its deep flaws.