Go for Orbit

By Rhea Seddon,

Book cover of Go for Orbit: One of America's First Women Astronauts Finds Her Space

Book description

In a small town in Tennessee, the young girl stood with her father and gazed at the Russian Sputnik in the night sky. She knew that she was witnessing the beginning of a new era for the human race. Would she play a part? Rhea Seddon was ten years old.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Go for Orbit as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

As one of the 8,000 people who applied (and wasn’t selected) as an astronaut in 1978, I wondered what made the six women chosen, including Dr. Seddon, stand out.

How about the stamina and skill to handle 24-hour shifts saving gunshot victims in the emergency room? How about pushing her body to the limit to hold her breath and swim two lengths underwater? And then there is the sheer determination that allowed her to endure almost drowning when the spacesuit she had to wear was sized for a man.

She not only was one of the first women astronauts, but…

From Marianne's list on biographical stories of women in space.

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