The Six

April 1, 2023

A Bloomberg News reporter whose brief is space, Grush chronicles the experiences of The Six--astronauts Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon--who became the first U.S. women to pierce the heavens. Prepub Alert.

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July 1, 2023
The remarkable story of "the first six women astronauts NASA had ever chosen." Blazing a trail for others to follow is never easy, but the women featured in this book had it tougher than most. Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon were the first American women in space, and they had to fight every step of the way. Grush, a journalist specializing in space issues and the accompanying science, provides biographies of each, noting they had all been professionally successful before applying for the space program. The first generation of NASA astronauts had been military pilots, and a sexist culture had developed around their macho myth. It was only challenged with the development of the space shuttle program, which called for a broader recruitment strategy. Interestingly, Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek fame was enlisted to encourage applications from the public. It was successful, and in 1978, there were more than 8,000 people in the candidate pool. The training for the six was grueling, and the discrimination continued even after Ride became the first to get into space, in 1983. They often had to cope with being depicted as public relations novelties, but their outstanding performance across numerous missions eventually silenced the critics. Tragically, Resnik lost her life in the Challenger disaster. Looking back, it's hard to believe that it took so long for women to be accepted by NASA. Even now, there are far fewer women than men in the program, but at least their presence in space is no longer seen as unusual. People who enjoyed Hidden Figures will find much to like in this book. Grush has an important story to tell, and she tells it well. An inspiring story of the first American women to go into space, charting their own course for the horizon.

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July 10, 2023
Bloomberg News reporter Grush debuts with a satisfactory history of the first six American women astronauts: Anna Fisher, Shannon Lucid, Judy Resnik, Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon, and Kathy Sullivan. Grush traces the long path to the groundbreaking class of 1978, to which all six belonged, noting that a previous female cohort in the early 1960s was scrapped because “figuring out if women could fly to space” was seen as a distraction from the moon landing. The calculus changed in 1976 when NASA, hoping to counteract bad press from the firing of a whistleblower who criticized the agency’s lack of diversity, opened their new astronaut class to women and people of color for the first time. Grush captures the personalities of each woman, but focuses primarily on the first two to visit space: Ride, a whip-smart introvert who concealed her sexuality throughout her life, and Resnik, a talented engineer with a reputation for “navigating between being one of the guys and being a raging feminist,” as a male colleague once said. Grush also details the sexism the six endured, suggesting that Seddon’s assignment to “help craft the food systems” rather than robotics or software was likely because of her gender. Unfortunately, the author sometimes resorts to dubious speculation, particularly in the re-creation of Resnik’s mindset in the minutes before she died in the 1986 Challenger explosion. Still, this makes for a solid companion to Hidden Figures.

August 1, 2023
For NASA's first 19 years, the adventure of space flight was only available to white men. Then, in 1978, following a push for diversity in the astronaut corps, the space shuttle class of 35 astronauts included six women. In her engrossing account of the lives of these accomplished and determined women, Grush, a Bloomberg News journalist specializing in space, follows their paths from girls who were told they could never be astronauts to women who became just that (as well as doctors, engineers, and scientists). As their professional competencies and personal choices were scrutinized above and beyond those of their male colleagues, the six persisted, opening doors for generations of diverse astronauts to follow. Based on archival material and interviews with the surviving pioneering female astronauts and the families of those who have passed, this is a well-rounded narrative of the lives of these trailblazing women. Like Margot Lee Shetterly's Hidden Figures and Nathalia Holt's Rise of the Rocket Girls, The Six highlights the contributions of women in science and the challenges they face.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.