Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for this honest review, I have recently read several books about NASA and the first class of astronauts to include people of color and women. I have followed the space program from the early days and was anxious to read Ms. Bagby’s look into the class of 1978. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. While it was apparent the the author did extensive research, as evidenced by the book’s length and multiple pages of footnotes, I found the book just wasn’t for me. Perhaps it was the writing style or that I already knew so much of the narrative from my earlier readings of the subject. However, if you are looking for a book on the Space Shuttle and it’s astronauts it is worth a read.

A really interesting look at the astronaut class of 1978 - fun to get insight into the inner workings of NASA and the major hurdles needed to be overcome to bring the space program at least partially into and reflective of contemporary society.

I'm not usually a fan of overview, storytelling collective biographies, but this was so well done I couldn't put it down. It's as engaging as the best novel and just exactly right in terms of research and history. It's a literary memorial to the astronauts wre called upon to not only rocket into space, but to help design and build the Space Shuttle fleet.

It's like looking through a window in time, learning about each of the The New Guys, names that any NASA officianado recognizes with little effort, from Sally Ride to Ron McNair, and the people who shaped the program all along the way. It was both intriguing to discover what road they took to space, and awe-inspiring how they drove themselves to reach the heavens.

This is a beautifully woven story of the iconic women and men who touched the stars, the challenges getting there, the heartbreak when we lost those in Challenger and Columbia, and the history of a government program that is made of the dreams of us all.

A readable book about the class of astronauts that defined the 1980s, including the first women and minority astronauts. I learned not only about the training and technical aspects but the personal.lives lives of the astronauts themselves.