Promised the Moon

Everyone knows the names of astronauts John Glenn and Alan Shepard, but few are familiar with Gerri Cobb or Bernice Steadman, just two of the so-called Mercury 13--a group of extraordinary women secretly recruited for space training in the early 1960s. Passing gruelling physical and psychological tests, these women, all pilots, consistently outperformed the men in many key areas, but not one of them lead their country into space.

For Promised the Moon, journalist Stephanie...
More Description

Everyone knows the names of astronauts John Glenn and Alan Shepard, but few are familiar with Gerri Cobb or Bernice Steadman, just two of the so-called Mercury 13--a group of extraordinary women secretly recruited for space training in the early 1960s. Passing gruelling physical and psychological tests, these women, all pilots, consistently outperformed the men in many key areas, but not one of them lead their country into space.

For Promised the Moon, journalist Stephanie Nolen tracked down the 11 surviving members of the Mercury 13 to learn more about the program and the political and cultural climate that led to its mysterious cancellation.