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Stephanie Nolen
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Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race Hardcover – July 9, 2003

by Stephanie Nolen (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 21 ratings
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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.
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  1. Print length
    378 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Four Walls Eight Windows
  4. Publication date
    July 9, 2003
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1568582757
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1568582757
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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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Four Walls Eight Windows
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 9, 2003
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 378 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1568582757
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568582757
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #3,353,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 21 ratings

About the author

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Stephanie Nolen

Stephanie Nolen

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I'm a long-time foreign correspondent and a writer of narrative non-fiction with a love for the great-untold-story. I've written books about women secretly trained for the U.S. space program, a long-lost portrait of Shakespeare, and Africa's AIDS epidemic. And I've contributed to anthologies on topics ranging from having babies to surviving wars. I've been been posted in the Middle East, South Africa and India; these days, I live in Rio de Janeiro, covering Latin America for Canada's Globe and Mail. Lots of long flights, which means lots of time for fat novels - I write non-fiction, but I only read fiction. I'm at work on a new book, that grows out questions I ask after more than 20 years of reporting in war zones and humanitarian disasters. I just need more hours in the day to get it finished - if you've got a solution for that problem (or anything to share about my last books!) please get in touch.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • PAUL THOMARIOS
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    a must read for all
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  • Briana LeClaire
    4.0 out of 5 stars The new standard for telling this story.
    Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2002
    Full disclosure: I am the daughter of Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen who was one of the FLATs (Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees) and so I am more than casually interested in this story. Plus I've met the author, so I'm going to be even less professional, and call her Stephanie!
    Every student of the US-Soviet Space Race should have this book. The FLATs have had their story of thirteen women who passed the 1960's astronaut tests (famously described and pictured in "The Right Stuff") told in several media, but Stephanie's is the most thorough job. Her book is liberally sprinkled through with transcripts, letters, interviews, and other primary sources. She presents all sides of the issues, and is exceptionally fair to those who can no longer speak for themselves, especially Jacqueline Cochrane.
    Stephanie does an excellent job drawing the reader into the late '50's and early '60's, painting what seems to be an accurate picture of that era. She lets the primary sources speak for themselves and generally comments just enough to keep the narrative going. For example: in my lifetime I have only known John Glenn as a somewhat liberal Democrat senator from Ohio, and part of the Keating Five. Stephanie ably describes how especially he was seen to be nearly a god during the Space Race. We've seen that before in books and movies, but Stephanie's book tells the story from these exceptional women pilots' perspective.
    In a nutshell: this is a darn interesting story, and Stephanie writes well and had a good editor. An easy, fascinating read.
    18 people found this helpful
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  • Farvoyager
    5.0 out of 5 stars Negative Reviews are Mostly from Men... imagine that
    Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2010
    "Promised The Moon" is a great read, and very informative about the lesser-known astronaut training program for women, who came to be known as the "Mercury 13." If you watched "The Right Stuff," a movie about the more famous (and all male) Mercury Seven, then you have an idea of just how rigorous the Mercury training program was. What is less known, is that the women completed the exact same tests and in many cases surpassed the men's scores, especially in psychological and sensory deprivation experiments.

    Like the female aviators who volunteered to fly reconnaissance missions during World War II (and were never paid), these female test pilots gave up jobs, left behind families and made great personal sacrifices to be a part of the program, because they hoped - just as the male astronaughts hoped - to one day set foot on the moon.

    Unfortunately, half a century later, no woman has set foot on extraterrestrial soil. A fascinating, eye-opening read.
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  • Jackson Reed
    5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, fascinating story
    Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2004
    As a Canadian, for many years I have had the pleasure of following Ms Nolen's International journalism in the Globe and Mail, our country's national newspaper. In that same newspaper, I spotted a glowing review of "Promised the Moon" by Roberta Bondar, and it was then that I purchased the book and learned the little-known story of the Mercury 13.
    Ms Nolen has certainly done her research. She has tracked down the surviving members of the Mercury 13, and told their story in such a way that even a space "layperson" such as myslef can understand the details. A fascinating, well-written piece of non-fiction by an award-winning journalist. Highly recommended.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Jonathan South
    5.0 out of 5 stars A good canadian view
    Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2005
    Well for a canadian to begin digging into american history that might have been forgotten WOW.....You picked a good topic....

    And to think a person who washed out stopped this from happening.......

    Nice work....

    Jonathan
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Beverly Simone
    5.0 out of 5 stars Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race
    Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2007
    Great read! Arrived in excellent condition and quickly
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Roger D. Launius
    1.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Story but a Misrepresentation of NASA
    Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2004
    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.
    44 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Johnny Max
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good book and an introduction to a part of the ...
    Reviewed in Canada on August 3, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Good book and an introduction to a part of the space race history that is generally little known. Some very talented and driven women from varied backgrounds that worked extremely hard to earn a chance to go to space... The author did a good job on the book but was not well educated on aircraft and therefore makes a number of mistakes on aircraft types and models... this is forgivable though as only those in the know would catch the mistakes. It does not affect the tale.
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