The Six Audiobook By Loren Grush cover art

The Six

The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts

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The Six

By: Loren Grush
Narrated by: Inés del Castillo
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About this listen

“Vivid.” —The Guardian * “Engrossing.” —Booklist * “Suspenseful, meticulously observed, enlightening.” —Margot Lee Shetterly, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures

In this account of America’s first women astronauts “Grush skillfully weaves a story that, at its heart, is about desire: not a nation’s desire to conquer space, but the longing of six women to reach heights that were forbidden to them” (The New York Times).

When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots—a group then made up exclusively of men—had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed unqualified for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls, regardless of race or gender. From a candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected in 1978—Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon.

In The Six, acclaimed journalist Loren Grush shows these brilliant and courageous women enduring claustrophobic—and sometimes deeply sexist—media attention, undergoing rigorous survival training, and preparing for years to take multi-million-dollar payloads into orbit. Together, the Six helped build the tools that made the space program run. One of the group, Judy Resnik, sacrificed her life when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at 46,000 feet. Everyone knows of Sally Ride’s history-making first space ride, but each of the Six would make their mark. “A spirited group biography…it’s hard not to feel awe for these women” (The Wall Street Journal).

©2023 Loren Grush (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio
Americas Gender Studies Science Social Sciences United States Women Inspiring Air Force

Editorial Review

A timely history of the space race
With so many eyes and ears focused on the cosmos after last month’s historic moon landing, it feels like we’re on the precipice of another space race. And while there are countless stories of the men who led those early missions, have you ever stopped to ask, “Where were the women?” In the same vein as Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures, which shined a light on the brilliant Black women mathematicians behind the space race, Loren Grush’s The Six highlights the first class of women inducted into NASA’s astronaut program in 1978—Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon. Performer Inés del Castillo breathes life into these women’s stories, offering at once a celebration of their accomplishments and an exposé on the sexism they faced every step of the way. It’s the perfect listen as we once again gear up for a new future of space exploration. —Michael C., Audible Editor