Nolen, Stephanie

In 1959, the doctor who supervised NASA's astronaut selection concluded that women might fare better in space than men. His testing of 25 top female pilots for reactions to isolation, centrifuge, and weightlessness proved him right, and 13 exceptional candidates were identified. Despite countless personal and professional sacrifices, these women joined NASA's clandestine new program - which, after two intensive years, was suddenly, and mysteriously, canceled. Promised the Moon chronicles the dramatic story of the rise and fall of these pioneering female astronauts, patriots betrayed by men like John Glenn, who opposed women astronauts, and by someone from their own ranks.

Contains the first-hand stories of eleven women chosen by NASA to be the first women in space in 1959 and 1960 and explains why they were grounded in 1961 when the program was abruptly and mysteriously cancelled.

Profiles twenty-eight men, women, and children who have AIDS or have otherwise been touched by the AIDS crisis in Africa, including fourteen-year-old orphan Tigist Haile Michael; Christine Amisi, a doctor treating AIDS amidst the war in Congo; and former South African president Nelson Mandela, who lost a son to the disease.