Description
Spaceflight historian Amy Shira Teitel tells the riveting story of the female pilots who each dreamed of being the first American woman in space.

When the space age dawned in the late 1950s, Jackie Cochran held more propeller and jet flying records than any pilot of the twentieth century—man or woman. She had led the Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots during the Second World War, was the first woman to break the sound barrier, ran her own luxury cosmetics company, and counted multiple presidents among her personal friends. She was more qualified than any woman in the world to make the leap from atmosphere to orbit. Yet it was Jerrie Cobb, twenty-five years Jackie's junior and a record-holding pilot in her own right, who finagled her way into taking the same medical tests as the Mercury astronauts. The prospect of flying in space quickly became her obsession.

While the American and international media spun the shocking story of a "woman astronaut" program, Jackie and Jerrie struggled to gain control of the narrative, each hoping to turn the rumored program into their own ideal reality—an issue that ultimately went all the way to Congress.

This dual biography of audacious trailblazers Jackie Cochran and Jerrie Cobb presents these fascinating and fearless women in all their glory and grit, using their stories as guides through the shifting social, political, and technical landscape of the time.

"But what's perhaps most breathtaking about the book is the sheer number of long-buried letters and correspondences that Teitel has unearthed and reproduced in full." -- Forbes

"A well-researched contribution to women’s and aviation history." -- Kirkus Review

"History is often not as simple as it seems. In the case of Jackie Cochran and Jerrie Cobb, this book offers a revealing insight on two characters we thought we knew, but didn't. From different generations and with profoundly different but equally dogged motivations, these two pilots crossed paths and fought battles in the new world of women pushing for a place in the air, and perhaps even in space." -- Francis French, Author, In the Shadow of the Moon

"In this smart, fun, compelling and deeply researched book, Teitel tells the tale of Jackie Cochran and Jerrie Cobb who scrapped with each other and, more important, with a blinkered, male-dominated space agency, for their chance to be among the first humans to leave the planet. It's a story of ambition, talent, gender equality and of a sort media frenzy that seems more 21st century than 1950s." -- Jeffrey Kluger, co-author of Apollo 13 with Jim Lovell and author of Apollo 8

Spaceflight historian Teitel took a deep dive into a host of public records to craft this dual biography of Cochran and Cobb, creating a firm portrait of two driven and determined individuals. -- Booklist