Author: Loren Grush
The Six highlights the contributions of women in science and the challenges they face. It is a solidly researched book on the first American women in space, including some new stories readers will not find elsewhere.
The daughter of two NASA engineers, author Loren Grush grew up surrounded by astronauts and space shuttles.
Melissa L. Sevigny said in a review for The New York Times: “It’s difficult to imagine a place more coded as masculine than the cockpit of a rocket ship.
The tales of the space race enshrined in American history too often center on white men and elevate machismo.
From the first pages of “The Six,” the science journalist reclaims this place as female.
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 — literally, to fly.
The author “resists the urge to put the Six on a pedestal, and avoids Hollywoodizing their relationships with one another,” said the review.
They were neither close friends nor fierce competitors, Grush writes, but rather “trusted co-workers” who “could form a united front when they needed.”
