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Speaker 1: The Space Shuttle challengers. Five astronauts are sleeping now after

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Speaker 1: a virtually flawless launch and first day. This is the

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Speaker 1: seventh Shuttle mission, and with no hitches, it might have

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Speaker 1: been considered routine. But as the challenger climbed today, it

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Speaker 1: carried an American woman astronaut, Sally Ride, into space and

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Speaker 1: into history.

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Speaker 2: The story of the first American men to go to

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Speaker 2: space has been well told. Those brave Kaki test pilots

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Speaker 2: were selected for Project Mercury in nineteen fifty nine because

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Speaker 2: they had the right stuff, as the author Tom Wolfe

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Speaker 2: famously put it, But it wasn't until nineteen seventy eight

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Speaker 2: that NASA opened the door for women to join the

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Speaker 2: US astronaut program.

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Speaker 3: The civil rights movement happened, the feminism movement happened. That's

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Speaker 3: when NASA started getting questions about, Okay, why is this

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Speaker 3: not a priority, And so it really was something they

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Speaker 3: just could not ignore anymore.

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Speaker 2: That's Bloomberg Space reporter Lauren Grush In a new book

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Speaker 2: called The Six The Untold Story of America's first women Astronauts,

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Speaker 2: she recounts the very different path these pioneers took to

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Speaker 2: reach NASA and the challenge is they had to overcome

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Speaker 2: along the way. I'm wes Kasova today on the Big

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Speaker 2: Take the Women who Shattered the Highest glass ceiling, Lauren.

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Speaker 2: This is a really big book, for one hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty plus pages. How long have you been at it?

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Speaker 4: It has been a three year project.

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Speaker 3: But to be fair, if you've ever edited a piece

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Speaker 3: of mine, you'll know that I always tend to write long,

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Speaker 3: so I actually was concerned I would not meet the

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Speaker 3: word count, but then, of course I exceeded it and

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Speaker 3: had to cut a.

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Speaker 4: Lot out of it.

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Speaker 3: But hey, when you're writing a biography of incredible women,

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Speaker 3: there's not enough pages for all of the interesting things

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Speaker 3: that they've done.

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Speaker 2: So why don't you tell us about the six?

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Speaker 4: Sure?

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Speaker 3: So, I think everybody has some kind of idea of

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Speaker 3: who Sally Ride is. Obviously, she's the first American woman

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Speaker 3: to go to space. I bet some people don't even

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Speaker 3: know she was actually the second woman ever to go

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Speaker 3: to space. But yes, Sally Ride's name kind of resonates

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Speaker 3: for a lot of people. But what I think a

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Speaker 3: lot of the public doesn't know is that she was

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Speaker 3: one of a group of six women who could have

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Speaker 3: all been the first American woman to go to space.

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Speaker 3: They were all extremely qualified, but one of them had

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Speaker 3: to go first. And so with the six, I really

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Speaker 3: wanted to shine light on the other five women's stories

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Speaker 3: and also the accomplishments that they made, because obviously they

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Speaker 3: did amazing things as well, they just had different spots.

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Speaker 4: In the order. I mean, these six women, they're just incredible.

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Speaker 3: So just to name them, obviously we know Sally Ride,

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Speaker 3: she's a form i'mer tennis player and astrophysicist. Judy Resnik

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Speaker 3: she's an electrical engineer and the second American woman to

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Speaker 3: fly to space. There's Kathy Sullivan, an oceanographer and geologist,

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Speaker 3: also the first American woman to perform a spacewalk.

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Speaker 4: After her came Anna Fisher.

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Speaker 3: She's an emergency room doctor and she became the first

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Speaker 3: mother to fly to space. After her was Ray Seddon,

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Speaker 3: also a surgeon and a doctor, and followed up by

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Speaker 3: Shannon Lucid, who was a chemist.

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Speaker 2: What's so interesting about this is that all of them

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Speaker 2: started the same year in the same class of astronauts.

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Speaker 3: Right absolutely, they were selected among a group of eight

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Speaker 3: thousand applicants in nineteen seventy eight. So what the selection

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Speaker 3: committee did was they actually narrowed that down to over

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Speaker 3: two hundred finalists, and these women were among those finalists,

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Speaker 3: and they had to go through what I think is

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Speaker 3: a very extreme selection process. They had to come down

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Speaker 3: to Houston, Texas, where the NASA Johnson Space Center is,

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Speaker 3: and go through a week of physical exams, medical exams,

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Speaker 3: they had to undergo a psych evaluation. The biggest thing

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Speaker 3: they had to undergo and was really kind of what

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Speaker 3: decided their fate, was an hour and a half long

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Speaker 3: interview with the selection committee. And I can only imagine

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Speaker 3: that was probably the most intimidating interview of one's life.

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Speaker 4: But yes, it was simply just to gauge a little

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Speaker 4: bit more about who they were.

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Speaker 3: They talked about what they had done in high school

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Speaker 3: and what led them to the now, and through that process,

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Speaker 3: the selection committee members tried to understand if this really

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Speaker 3: was the job for them and if they could hack

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Speaker 3: it as an astronaut.

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Speaker 2: Even the idea that they were up for selection was

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Speaker 2: pretty historic because women just weren't allowed in before in

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight, right, So.

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Speaker 4: The requirements prior to when these women joined were very

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Speaker 4: limiting for folks back when NASA was first formed, they

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Speaker 4: were gathering people for the Mercury seven. It was very strict.

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Speaker 4: You had to be a test.

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Speaker 3: Pilot, and back then the only people who could be

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Speaker 3: test pilots were men because women were banned from flying

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Speaker 3: jets for the military, and so it was pretty much

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Speaker 3: guarantee that women could not join. And at the same time,

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Speaker 3: they also wanted people who were engineers and scientists with

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Speaker 3: advanced degrees, so it was probably the most stringent requirements

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Speaker 3: you could possibly have back then. Then over time, you know,

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Speaker 3: as NASA tried to fix its mistakes and be more inclusive,

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Speaker 3: they also created a new role, which was called the

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Speaker 3: Mission Specialists. So while they still prioritized pilots and people

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Speaker 3: with jet experience who could fly the Shuttle, they created

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Speaker 3: this new role which was for astronauts who had backgrounds

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Speaker 3: in engineering, stem and so all they needed to be

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Speaker 3: selected was a degree in one of those fields. Obviously

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Speaker 3: an advanced degree was preferred, and they had to be

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Speaker 3: a certain height, and they had to pass a basic

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Speaker 3: physical exam, which also I believe had relaxed requirements. So

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Speaker 3: it was the most inclusive selection process that NASA had

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Speaker 3: ever done, and at the same time, they also very

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Speaker 3: much wanted to spread the word to women and people

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Speaker 3: of color at the time. They made that a priority,

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Speaker 3: and so that allowed for a much more diverse pool

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Speaker 3: of applicants to apply, leading to the sixth joining and

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Speaker 3: also during their class, they were the first women, but

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Speaker 3: it also included the first three black astronauts to join

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Speaker 3: the program and also the first Asian American astronaut.

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Speaker 2: Why nineteen seventy eight, What was the thing that made

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Speaker 2: NASA realized they needed to go past the kind of

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Speaker 2: fighter jock selection process.

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Speaker 3: Well, let's not forget that they still got flack for

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Speaker 3: simply picking men. Back in the sixties.

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Speaker 4: There was a great of.

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Speaker 3: Women who underwent a series of tests that the Mercury Seven,

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Speaker 3: the first seven astronauts that NASA picked underwent.

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Speaker 4: The thirteen women passed.

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Speaker 3: Those tests, and they desperately wanted to keep training to

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Speaker 3: potentially go to space one day, but they were blocked

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Speaker 3: from pursuing that dream further, and so there was a

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Speaker 3: congressional hearing in which they desperately tried to get NASA

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Speaker 3: to consider them and to let them keep training, but

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Speaker 3: it just wasn't.

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Speaker 4: A priority for NASA at the time.

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Speaker 3: Simply because we were in a space race with the

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Speaker 3: Soviet Union. So I think the idea was that anything

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Speaker 3: that detracted from winning that race was seen as.

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Speaker 4: Some kind of detriment, and that wasn't a priority.

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Speaker 5: I believe that this nation should commit it, so achieving

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Speaker 5: the goal before this decade is out of landing a

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Speaker 5: man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

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Speaker 5: No single space project in this period will be more

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Speaker 5: impressive to mankind, are more important for the long range

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Speaker 5: exploration of space.

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Speaker 3: In the meantime, the Soviet Union did end up sending

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Speaker 3: the first woman into space, but NASA downplayed that that

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Speaker 3: was just not a race that the US was keen

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Speaker 3: on winning at the time. Then as the years progressed,

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Speaker 3: the world changed, the civil rights movement happened, the feminism

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Speaker 3: movement happened, and that's when NASA started getting questions about, Okay,

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Speaker 3: why is this not a priority. And there's some internal

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Speaker 3: work done in the book showing just how awful NASA's

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Speaker 3: diversity efforts were, and so it really was something they

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Speaker 3: just could not ignore anymore, and the selection committee in

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Speaker 3: the nineteen seventies really made that a priority, and ever since,

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Speaker 3: this class of astronauts was selected. Every subsequent astronaut class

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Speaker 3: has been closer to parity and equality than we had

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Speaker 3: back in the early days of the program.

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Speaker 2: You said that one of the requirements was each of

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Speaker 2: these women astronauts had to have a degree in one

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Speaker 2: of the stem fields. If you look at the resumes

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Speaker 2: of these astronauts are pretty incredible. Most of them have PhDs.

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Speaker 2: Two of them were medical doctors. These were people who

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Speaker 2: had brilliant careers already before they decided to go into space.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, but in reality, they faced a lot of struggles

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Speaker 3: even before they came to NASA, because some of them

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Speaker 3: really had to fight to be taken seriously in order

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Speaker 3: to pursue their academic ambitions. I mean, some of the

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Speaker 3: women were younger when they were chosen, but Shannon Lucid

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Speaker 3: was the oldest one of the bunch, and her story

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Speaker 3: I find extremely compelling because she grew up just slightly

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Speaker 3: a few years before many of the women in the book,

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Speaker 3: and that the amount of sexism and vitriol that she

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Speaker 3: faced just because she.

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Speaker 4: Wanted to work. She had so many men telling.

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Speaker 3: Her that she'd never get a job or that she

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Speaker 3: couldn't be paid the same as her male colleagues. You know,

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Speaker 3: she just was constantly trying to just be taken seriously,

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Speaker 3: and it was just such a struggle for her. So

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Speaker 3: I find those early days really compelling. Just to learn

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Speaker 3: what brought them to the types of careers that they wanted,

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Speaker 3: and then also learning about why they each wanted to

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Speaker 3: be an astronaut, I think was fascinating. One thing I

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Speaker 3: keep saying is the six is a great example of

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Speaker 3: there's no one true.

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Speaker 4: Path to space.

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Speaker 3: They all had such diverse backgrounds and diverse interests. And also,

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Speaker 3: I think a lot of people assume that anyone who

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Speaker 3: wants to be an astronaut it was just this lifelong

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Speaker 3: dream from the start, But for half of them, it

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Speaker 3: really wasn't anything that they considered. A big part of

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Speaker 3: that was because they just didn't think it was possible

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Speaker 3: for them.

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Speaker 4: So it was only when.

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Speaker 3: The astronaut selection process was opened up to a bunch

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Speaker 3: more diverse class of people that they thought, oh, this

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Speaker 3: is something I could do. I think I could be

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Speaker 3: really good at it. And I think that's a great lesson.

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Speaker 3: When you make opportunities available for people, they start to

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Speaker 3: realize that they can do these things that they didn't

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Speaker 3: think they could do before, and you find much more

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Speaker 3: interesting and unique people than you would have found.

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Speaker 2: After the break. Getting into the space program was just

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Speaker 2: the first challenge these astronauts had to face. Lauren getting

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Speaker 2: selected for this space program was obviously a big milestone,

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Speaker 2: But then these women astronauts went into a culture that

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Speaker 2: was very male, and you write that they faced all

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Speaker 2: kinds of challenges once they got in the door.

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Speaker 3: First and foremost, the challenges revolved around training. So for

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Speaker 3: Kathy Sullivan, who was an oceanographer and geologist, you know,

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Speaker 3: she would probably breeze through the sections about oceanography and

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Speaker 3: geology because you know, a lot of the satellites they

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Speaker 3: deployed were actually looking back at Earth.

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Speaker 4: Same for Sally Ryde.

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Speaker 3: She was an astrophysicist, and when they did after physics lessons,

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Speaker 3: I'm sure she was old hat for her. They had

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Speaker 3: to stay current on a NASA's fleet of T thirty

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Speaker 3: eight jets, described to me as the hardest jet to fly,

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Speaker 3: but they were back seaters, so they didn't actually fly

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Speaker 3: the pains themselves. But when talking to some of their

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Speaker 3: former colleagues, it was admitted to me that some of

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Speaker 3: them let them take off in the land, which was

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Speaker 3: a no no back then. But I would say probably

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Speaker 3: one of the biggest dressers that the women had to

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Speaker 3: deal with was unfortunately our press ancestors. So back in

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Speaker 3: the day, the media was not so enlightened in how

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Speaker 3: they covered the first six women, and that was reflected

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Speaker 3: in some of the terrible questions that they asked.

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Speaker 6: What happens when you meet a man who's not in

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Speaker 6: the space program and doesn't know who you are, and

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Speaker 6: you say I'm an astronaut, as they say, you're too

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Speaker 6: cute to be an astronaut. Come on, a little lady,

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Speaker 6: you can't be an astronaut.

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Speaker 4: I just tell them I'm an engineer.

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Speaker 6: You don't tell them you're an astronaut.

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Speaker 7: I'm lucky.

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Speaker 6: Ask do you really? I mean, when you meet people

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Speaker 6: for the first time, what about the whole business about

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Speaker 6: social relationships? Does it make it? Are some men another

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Speaker 6: factory to in Nashrona.

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Speaker 8: I don't know if they are, They're probably not my friends.

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Speaker 2: That was astronaut Judy Resnik being interviewed in nineteen eighty one.

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Speaker 3: When the women were first announced to the world. One

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Speaker 3: member of the press asked if Shannon's three children were

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Speaker 3: considered when they selected her. The women had to undergo

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Speaker 3: water survival training in order to fly in the T

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Speaker 3: thirty eight jets, So basically they had to show that

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Speaker 3: if they bailed out of the jet, they could survive

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Speaker 3: landing in water under parachutes.

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Speaker 4: That was one of their first big training sessions.

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Speaker 3: And as they were training, the press kind of just

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Speaker 3: mobbed them in the water.

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Speaker 4: There were boats and rafts of.

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Speaker 3: Press trying to take pictures of them as they're undergoing

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Speaker 3: this very sensitive training exercise, one that they really needed

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Speaker 3: to be focused on, and the press would yell things

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Speaker 3: at them. I think there's one instance of somebody yelling,

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Speaker 3: you know, give us a smile, and maybe Ray or

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Speaker 3: Sally shot back no, and somebody also yelled back, hey, miss.

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Speaker 4: And Ray said it's doctor.

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Speaker 5: You know.

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Speaker 4: A great exchange is like that.

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Speaker 3: But I think one of the biggest examples of how

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Speaker 3: a lot of growing up the press still had to

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Speaker 3: do was when Sally Ride was first picked.

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Speaker 4: For her flight.

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Speaker 3: Her press conferences that she did with the media are

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Speaker 3: just so cringey to listen back to, and there's some

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Speaker 3: great quotes from there. I think the biggest one that's

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Speaker 3: probably the most infamous is before she launched on her flight,

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Speaker 3: someone from Time asked her if she cried or wept

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Speaker 3: when something went wrong in the simulator, and she handled

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Speaker 3: it the best she could, she just laughed and she

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Speaker 3: was just, you know, why doesn't anyone ask Rick, her colleague,

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Speaker 3: one of those questions.

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Speaker 2: Here's Sally Ride speaking to Gloria Steinem in a nineteen

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Speaker 2: eighty three interview on ABC.

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Speaker 8: Really, the only bad moments in our t involved the press.

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Speaker 8: The press was an added pressure on the flight for me.

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Speaker 8: And whereas NASA appeared to be very enlightened about flying

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Speaker 8: women astronauts, the press didn't appear to be. The things

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Speaker 8: that they were concerned with were not the same things

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Speaker 8: that I was concerned with.

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Speaker 6: They were since the bathroom facilities.

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Speaker 8: Bathroom facilities?

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Speaker 7: How much did you get to ask that?

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Speaker 8: Just about every interview I got asked that everybody wanted

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Speaker 8: to know about what kind of makeup I was taking up.

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Speaker 8: They didn't care about how well prepared I was to

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Speaker 8: operate the arm or deploy communications satellites.

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Speaker 2: Lauren, that's sort of the outside world looking in and

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Speaker 2: seeing these women as a curiosity. What about inside the

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Speaker 2: program itself?

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Speaker 3: When the women came in. They did really try their

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Speaker 3: best to be inclusive for them. They had to make

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Speaker 3: space for women as they came in. But obviously, you know,

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Speaker 3: not everyone was on board with this. You know, there

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Speaker 3: were some astronauts who were already with NASA at the

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Speaker 3: time who were on record as saying, you know, I

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Speaker 3: kind of considered this job to be a man's job.

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Speaker 4: Even some of the astronauts they came in with them

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Speaker 4: were a little skeptical.

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Speaker 3: A lot of the military folks, they just weren't used

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Speaker 3: to working with women at a professional capacity, so that

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Speaker 3: took a little getting used to, and they obviously had

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Speaker 3: some biases when they came in. Some have admitted to that,

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Speaker 3: But as they worked more with them and saw just

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Speaker 3: how hard they trained and how hard they were working,

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Speaker 3: they reformed their attitudes and realized that this job was

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Speaker 3: just as female as it was male. And you know,

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Speaker 3: they also came into resistance with other women, so some

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Speaker 3: of the astronauts or the men's wives were not so

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Speaker 3: keen on the women working with their husbands. So, as

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Speaker 3: I mentioned, the women had to stay current with their

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Speaker 3: T thirty eight training, and that meant spending a lot

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Speaker 3: of time in the backseat with one of their male coworkers,

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Speaker 3: and some of the wives of those astronauts didn't want

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Speaker 3: them flying with the women in their back seat. And

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Speaker 3: there was also just some of the men thought that

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Speaker 3: maybe working closely with the women would be seen as

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Speaker 3: improper and that had to quickly be abandoned because they

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Speaker 3: had so much work.

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Speaker 4: That they had to do together. There are definitely some

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Speaker 4: hiccups along the way, but a lot of the women

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Speaker 4: have expressed to me that they were treated very fairly

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Speaker 4: and they were very happy with the way they were treated.

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Speaker 6: But once you got into the program, wasn't there a

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Speaker 6: little bit of resentment or a little bit of male

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Speaker 6: chauvinism that was demonstrated to there's a very male kind

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Speaker 6: of fighter pilot world that you were in.

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Speaker 2: Drink not at all.

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Speaker 8: As a matter of fact, I think everybody leaned over

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Speaker 8: backwards to make sure that we were treated as equals.

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Speaker 3: I think another thing that they also did not want

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Speaker 3: was to be singled out in any way. So they

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Speaker 3: very much expressed that they didn't want to be the

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Speaker 3: girl astronauts. They wanted to be one of the guys.

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Speaker 3: So they were very keen on not making big displays

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Speaker 3: of their gender once they arrived at NASA. I mean,

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Speaker 3: there's a great moment where somebody tried to hold the

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Speaker 3: door open for Sally Ride and she just pushed him

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Speaker 3: right through, which is very in tune with her personality

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Speaker 3: from what I've learned of her. Anytime someone could refer

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Speaker 3: to them as a lady astronaut, they shot that down

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Speaker 3: very quickly, and it was very much in their interests

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Speaker 3: to be considered just one of the guys.

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Speaker 2: Learn After all this training, it came time to fly,

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Speaker 2: and your book opens with this just beautiful, serene moment.

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Speaker 2: Can you describe what happened? It involves Anna Fisher.

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Speaker 3: I opened the book with the night before Sally Ride

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Speaker 3: takes her first trip to space. It's obviously a huge moment,

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Speaker 3: and one thing that I learned, Anna Fisher was the

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Speaker 3: lead cape crusader for Sally's flight. So cape crusader is

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Speaker 3: a fun little term to refer to the support astronauts.

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Speaker 3: Many of the astronauts would work the missions. They'd go

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Speaker 3: down to Cape Canaveral in Florida, and they were responsible

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Speaker 3: for the switch checklist, so they would make sure all

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Speaker 3: of the switches in the cockpit or the cabin were

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Speaker 3: set to where they needed to be prior to flight,

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Speaker 3: and at the time, Anna Fisher was very pregnant with

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Speaker 3: her first daughter, and so she had one of those

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Speaker 3: shifts where she had to stay in the cockpit and

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Speaker 3: watch the switches before Sally came in. And I just

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Speaker 3: thought it was an amazing moment because here she is

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Speaker 3: a pregnant woman. I think she was about eight months

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Speaker 3: pregnant at the time, and just that sight of a

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Speaker 3: pregnant woman watching the cockpit waiting for the first American woman.

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Speaker 4: To fly to space.

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Speaker 3: I thought that was a really poetic scene and a

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Speaker 3: great way to open the book.

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Speaker 2: And then you have just the absolute mayhem when Sally

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Speaker 2: Ride took her place in that cockpit.

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Speaker 7: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely.

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Speaker 3: I think luckily for Sally, she was kind of unaware

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Speaker 3: at the time of just the entire media mob that

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Speaker 3: was down the road.

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Speaker 4: It was just the media.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think there were about five hundred thousand

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Speaker 3: people who'd come to Florida that day to witness Sally fly.

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Speaker 2: And you describe what it was like actually for her

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Speaker 2: in the cockpit.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for her it was finally dawning on

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Speaker 3: her that this was actually going to happen. And she

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Speaker 3: has this great quote that she later said that once

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Speaker 3: the engines ignited and they started flying, she was overcome

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Speaker 3: with this realization that her fate was not her own,

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Speaker 3: that whatever was going to happen to her was going

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Speaker 3: to happen to her in that moment, and she just

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Speaker 3: kind of had to surrender to the engineering and you know,

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Speaker 3: hope for the best.

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Speaker 8: The thing that I'll remember most about that flight is

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Speaker 8: that it was fun, and in fact, I'm sure it's

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Speaker 8: the most fun I'll ever have in my.

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Speaker 2: Life when we come back the post NASA years, Lauren,

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Speaker 2: Once that glass ceiling was broken once and for all,

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Speaker 2: then women became a regular part of Space Shuttle and

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Speaker 2: other missions after that. What happened to the six they each.

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Speaker 3: Went on to fly, I think the order I mentioned

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Speaker 3: them earlier, that's the order in which they flew. After

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Speaker 3: Sally Judy Resnick flew, she was the second American woman

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Speaker 3: in space, and so you can only imagine what was

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Speaker 3: the question that she was constantly asked. Was she upset

403
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Speaker 3: that she wasn't the first? And she handled that very gracefully.

404
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Speaker 3: And she also admitted to a colleague that after watching

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Speaker 3: Sally in the odyssey that she went through. You know,

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Speaker 3: Sally dealt with press before her flight. It was after

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Speaker 3: she came back that the kind of the floodgates just

408
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Speaker 3: opened and the amount of request for her was just.

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Speaker 4: Staggering and overwhelming.

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Speaker 3: So Judy expressed that when she saw that level of

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Speaker 3: attention that she was actually quite content with going second. Tragically,

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Speaker 3: for Judy, though she did fly to space once and

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Speaker 3: then on her second flight, it was the infamous Challenger accident,

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Speaker 3: and she sadly lost her life.

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Speaker 7: There appears to have been a very serious accident involving

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Speaker 7: the Space Shuttle Challenger. The launch took place just a

417
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Speaker 7: few minutes ago, a few moments ago from Cape Canaveral.

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Speaker 7: It had been delayed four times. It appeared to be

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Speaker 7: a good launch at the point of departure from the

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Speaker 7: pad at Cape Canaveral. There had been, as we said,

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Speaker 7: previous delays of four different attempts. This was the fourth one.

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Speaker 7: It had been delayed a couple of hours by ice

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Speaker 7: by a faulty gauge. Then it appeared everything was good

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Speaker 7: for a launch, but shortly after the launch there was

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Speaker 7: an explosion.

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Speaker 3: After Judy Kathy Sullivan flew and she actually flew with

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Speaker 3: Sally on her flight, so that was Sally's second flight,

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Speaker 3: and that trip was also incredible because she became the

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Speaker 3: first American woman to perform a spacewalk.

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Speaker 4: And then Kathy also went on to have an amazing career.

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Speaker 3: She was part of the Space Shuttle crew that deployed

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Speaker 3: the Hubble Space Telescope. And even beyond that, Kathy is

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Speaker 3: just an avid explorer. That's part of her history which

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Speaker 3: I detail in the book. And even recently, she made

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Speaker 3: history in twenty twenty, she dove into Challengers Deep in

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Speaker 3: a tiny submersible.

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Speaker 9: Remember the name Kathy Sullivan, Folks. She made history as

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Speaker 9: the first US woman astronaut to walk in space, and

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Speaker 9: now another historic journey puts her in a league of

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Speaker 9: her own. She recently became the first woman to reach

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Speaker 9: Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the Western Pacific Ocean.

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Speaker 3: Following her was Anna Fisher, and I mentioned that she

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Speaker 3: was pregnant when she sat in the cockpit for Sally's flight. Well,

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Speaker 3: she gave birth to her daughter, Kristen, and so when

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Speaker 3: she flew, she was actually assigned to her flight just

446
00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:03,879
Speaker 3: before she gave birth, and when she flew she became

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00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,320
Speaker 3: the first mother to fly to space.

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00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,640
Speaker 4: Also, Kristen Fisher is a friend in peer.

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00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:13,399
Speaker 3: She's now a space reporter herself at CNN, which I

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00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 3: think is very apt.

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00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,639
Speaker 4: After Anna flu Ray said and came next.

452
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,119
Speaker 3: She was worried her flight was going to be a

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00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 3: bit boring, but she experienced a bunch of delays with

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00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:27,480
Speaker 3: her mission that made her really frustrated, and it looked

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00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:29,560
Speaker 3: as if they were just going to deploy a couple

456
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:33,840
Speaker 3: of satellites and call it a day. Obviously, astronauts are

457
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 3: very eager to fly, no matter what.

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00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:38,919
Speaker 4: It is their aim in life to go to space.

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00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 3: But there are some space flights that are more fun

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00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 3: than others. Obviously if you do a space walk, that's

461
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:48,000
Speaker 3: more exciting if you go on a higher inclination around

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00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,480
Speaker 3: the Earth. So for Ray, she was worried it was

463
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:52,640
Speaker 3: just going to be a couple satellite deployments. But then

464
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:56,760
Speaker 3: one of the satellites doesn't deploy as planned, and so

465
00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 3: they have to do this quick kind of regrouping.

466
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:01,120
Speaker 4: And I referred to it.

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00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 3: As a heist because the way they had to kind

468
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:06,560
Speaker 3: of fix the satellite. Following her as Shannon Lucid and

469
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 3: it's ironic that Shannon was last, because she was probably

470
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:11,639
Speaker 3: the one that was most keen to go to space

471
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:12,440
Speaker 3: out of all of them.

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00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,119
Speaker 4: You know, she had a lifelong ambition to be an astronaut.

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00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 8: Well, I'm just really proud to be an American and

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00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:19,719
Speaker 8: I'm just really part proud to be part of this

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00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 8: cooperative program that we have going with the Russians.

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00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:24,520
Speaker 2: It was just a great mission and I just had

477
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:25,359
Speaker 2: a great time.

478
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 3: And then all of them went on to have amazing careers.

479
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:34,119
Speaker 3: Some of them left the program fairly early after the

480
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:38,000
Speaker 3: Challenger accident. Sally Ride left fairly soon after that, and

481
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 3: she dedicated her life to academia. Probably her biggest claim

482
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,680
Speaker 3: to fame post NASA is creating Sally Ride's science and

483
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 3: nonprofit that was geared towards inspiring young children, notably young girls,

484
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:54,720
Speaker 3: to get into STEM. And also Sally's story doesn't in there.

485
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 3: She wound up falling in love with another woman named

486
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,920
Speaker 3: tam O'Shaughnessy, who was one of her childhood friends and

487
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,679
Speaker 3: also a tennis player who they played together.

488
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:07,439
Speaker 4: Tragically, Sally did.

489
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 3: Die in twenty twelve from cancer, but when she died,

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00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 3: her partner came out and proclaimed that she was her

491
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,479
Speaker 3: partner and had been her partner for many decades at

492
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 3: that point, and that made Sally the first known LGBTQ astronaut.

493
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:27,119
Speaker 3: And Tam told me that, you know, her coming out

494
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,919
Speaker 3: and revealing that she's received, you know, a ton of

495
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,399
Speaker 3: letters and notes from people saying that her doing that

496
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 3: made them comfortable coming out as well, and so she's,

497
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 3: you know, very grateful for that. I feel like, honestly,

498
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 3: I could write six more books about all of these women.

499
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,440
Speaker 3: There's so much information about them that I could not

500
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,640
Speaker 3: include in the four hundred pages that I did, So

501
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 3: there's plenty of information, and I encourage everyone to read

502
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 3: as much as they can about these women because they

503
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 3: are just fantastic.

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00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 2: Lauren, always great talking to you. Congrats on the book,

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00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming.

506
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:03,760
Speaker 4: On the show, Thanks so much for having me.

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00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to us here at The Big Take.

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00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 2: It's a daily podcast from Bloomberg and iHeartRadio. For more

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00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 2: shows from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,160
Speaker 2: wherever you listen, and we'd love to hear from you.

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00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,760
Speaker 2: Email us questions or comments to Big Take at Bloomberg

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00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:24,159
Speaker 2: dot net. The supervising producer of the Big Take is

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00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:29,119
Speaker 2: Vicky Burgolina. Our senior producer is Catherine Fink. Federica Romanello

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00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 2: is our producer. Our associate producer is Zenobsidiki. Hil de

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00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 2: Garcia is our engineer, with additional production support from Jill Namazzi.

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Speaker 2: Our original music was composed by Leo Sidrin. I'm West Kasova.

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Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow with another Big Take.