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Take a journey through the history of US women astronauts with Valerie Neal, an emerita curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and an expert on human spaceflight.
Sally Ride became a household name as the first American woman in space, but scores of equally impressive women have also left their mark in space. On a Mission: The Smithsonian History of US Women Astronauts spans 45 years and 61 astronauts, sharing the epic journeys of women who made space for themselves in a male-dominated field.
Valerie Neal interviewed many of the US women astronauts to bring their experiences to life. She offers a culturally insightful history of their achievements, the challenges they've faced, and their distinctive stories. Collectively, they've completed more than 100 space shuttle missions, and more than 30 long-duration stays on the International Space Station and Russian Space Station Mir, and they continue to prove themselves in present-day space exploration efforts.
The book includes 50 black-and-white photographs to complement the historical account. With its sweeping look from the first women astronauts to Christina Hammock Koch, assigned to the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, there is no comparably thorough book on America's women astronauts. On a Mission is an inspiring tribute to unsung women's history.
About the Author: Valerie Neal is a space historian and Curator Emerita at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Her specialty is human spaceflight, space technology, and space science in the Space Shuttle era and beyond. At the Museum, she collected more than 1,500 artifacts from the shuttle era, curated three exhibitions and eight documentary programs for the Smithsonian Channel (cable TV), published books and articles based on her research, lectured in the USA and abroad, and gave many interviews to US and international media.
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