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

Stephanie Nolen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 2003

In 1959, the doctor who supervised NASA's astronaut selection concluded that women might fare better in space than men. His testing of 25 top female pilots for reactions to isolation, centrifuge, and weightlessness proved him right, and 13 exceptional candidates were identified. Despite countless personal and professional sacrifices, these women joined NASA's clandestine new program – which, after two intensive years, was suddenly, and mysteriously, canceled. Promised the Moon chronicles the dramatic story of the rise and fall of these pioneering female astronauts, patriots betrayed by men like John Glenn, who opposed women astronauts, and by someone from their own ranks. The first writer to track down the surviving Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees, Stephanie Nolen vividly brings this fascinating and timely tale to life. Historical photographs are included in this riveting account.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In one of those strange coincidences that often occur in publishing, this is the second book this summer (after Martha Ackmann's The Mercury 13) to relate the little known but remarkable story of the 13 women who trained in the early 1960s to be Mercury astronauts, and though a slightly less satisfying effort, this is still compelling reading. These women passed many of the same grueling tests taken by the male Mercury astronauts, but they were opposed by virtually everyone in power at NASA. In addition to bringing many of the 13 to life, Nolen, a foreign correspondent for Canada's Toronto Globe and Mail, does an excellent job of describing the social context in which they operated. She explains that although institutional sexism and a strong antifemale bias among most players at NASA certainly existed, American society at large was not yet ready to permit women to be placed in the roles for which these women were training. Even many women felt this way, and Nolen explains how Jackie Cochran, one of America's best-known female aviators, spoke forcefully against sending women into space. Cochran's motives, according to Nolen, were complex; she didn't want to antagonize powerful male friends, she didn't want other women to overshadow her achievements and she felt that women weren't physically capable of performing such activities. Although Nolen interviewed 11 of the original 13, her material isn't quite as personal as Ackmann's. Nonetheless, this is impossible to put down and deserves widespread attention. 30 b&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A compelling tale of justice denied; masterfully told."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 378 pages
• Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows (July 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568582757
• ISBN-13: 978-1568582757
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,580,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The most readable, yet the least accurate of the books about this story., February 1, 2008

By 

Science Designer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race (Hardcover)

After years with no books on this subject, all of a sudden three came along. This book is the most readable and personal of them all, with a bouncy tabloid style that grips far more than the more scholarly competition. Yet it is let down with a number of inaccuracies and misinterpretations that make it the least accurate of the books on the "Mercury 13."

Better books to read to understand the true story are the excellent The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight, the fascinating Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program (Gender Relations in the American Experience) - and, most recommended, surprisingly, Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965 (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of S). The last book listed here manages to give a correct social, cultural and historical context to this story that all three of the other books lack.

34 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Story but a Misrepresentation of NASA, January 8, 2004

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race (Hardcover)

I am perplexed by the misrepresentation that is presented about this book by the publisher in its advertising copy. There was never a NASA program, clandestine or otherwise, to bring women into the astronaut corps in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We can debate whether or not NASA leaders should have been open to appointing women astronauts, but the reality was that such an expansion of the astronaut corps never even crossed their minds at the time. Additionally, Stephanie Nolen was not the first to "track down" and interview the women who undertook physical tests identical to those of the Mercury Seven astronauts. Margaret A. Weitekamp's work on the subject predates Nolen's research. It was first presented in a dissertation at Cornell University, and is forthcoming as "The Right Stuff: The Wrong Sex: The Lovelace Women in Space Program" from Johns Hopkins University Press in 2004. It will be the authoritative work on this subject.

In addition, the story of the "Mercury 13," as some call these women, is pretty well known in the spaceflight history community. In 1960, Dr. W. Randolph 'Randy' Lovelace II invited Geraldyn 'Jerrie' Cobb to undergo the physical fitness testing regimen that he had helped to develop to select the original U.S. astronauts, the Mercury Seven. Jerrie Cobb became the first American woman to do so, and she proved every bit as successful in the tests as had John Glenn and the other Mercury astronauts. Thereafter, Lovelace and Jerrie Cobb began to recruit more women to take the tests, totally without NASA involvement. Jacqueline Cochran, the famous American aviatrix and an old friend of Lovelace, joined their recruiting effort and volunteered to pay the testing expenses.

By the end of the summer of 1961, twenty-five women had undergone the examinations at the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The women came to New Mexico alone or in pairs for four days of tests. All of the women were skilled airplane pilots with commercial ratings. Most of them were recruited through the Ninety-Nines, a women pilot's organization.

Of those tested, thirteen women did exceptionally well and became known as the "First Lady Astronaut Trainees" or "Mercury 13." A few then agreed to undertake additional tests, and some believed that the further testing represented the first step allowing them to become astronauts, although there was never any intent of this on the part of NASA officials. Indeed, Mercury project managers were unaware of these tests.

When NASA officials learned about Lovelace's attempts for further tests from the Navy, which Lovelace had asked to undertake these tests at Pensacola, they told Navy flight surgeons that this was not a NASA project. The Navy then canceled the tests. Jerrie Cobb and Janey Hart (married to U.S. Senator Philip Hart of Michigan) then began a campaign in Washington, D.C. to have the testing program resumed. On the July 17-18, 1962, Representative Victor Anfuso chaired hearings of a special Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics about this subject. Jerrie Cobb and Janey Hart testified for the women. John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and George Low testified for NASA that setting up a special program to train women astronauts would hamper the effort to reach the Moon by the end of the decade. This ended the hearing and no women entered the NASA astronaut corps.

When Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963, Clare Booth Luce published an article about the women in "Life" magazine criticizing NASA for not achieving this first. It included contemporary photos of all thirteen women. Of course, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983, and in 1995 Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle. At Collins' invitation, eight of these women attended her launch.

In hindsight, one may criticize NASA leaders for not expanding the astronaut corps to women but there is no documentation whatsoever to suggest that there was even a consideration of doing so at the time. Perhaps John Glenn said it best when he remarked in recent years that the agency was reflective of its times. It is important to note, I think, that the first astronauts selected after the completion of Project Apollo--the class of 1978--did include women and other minorities, and therefore reflected the social changes experienced in the nation as a result of the women's movement.

24 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horribly written by a novice space historian, January 7, 2004

By 

Andrew J. Porwitzky (Havre de Grace, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race (Hardcover)

This is one of the many space history books written by someone whos only exposure to the field was in researching for this one book. The book drives one point repeatedly: at the time women were expected to stay at home with the babies and not fly in space. Anyone with knowledge of this era in American history knows this, and this is one of the only bits of actual information provided.
The author does not include dates or references where appropriate. All references are collected in alphabetical order at the end of the book--no foot or endnoting. The lack of dates is at points so great that it is easy to get lost in the timeline of the story, as most of the events of the book take place in a three year span that Nolen jumps around in.
Perhaps the most distressing thing about the book is the tone she takes when talking about NASA and the Mercury 7. At points she inserts off the cuff remarks about NASA leadership or members of the senate that called a hearing into the cancellation of the women's astronaut testing. Nolen takes the anti-NASA side saying that NASA refused to let the testing of the women continue and that they are at fault, when her own book indicates clearly that NASA never wanted the testing done in the first place and had no plans for female astronauts in the 1960's. Many at NASA were insulted, rightfully so, when a group of 13 women said they wanted to be astronauts when NASA had tested hundreds of men and only accepted seven!
Of all the space history books I have read (and I have read well over 30) this one is the worst. I highly advise not spending time on this book.