A Service of the Broward County Bo ard of County Commissioners.
\nJoan Goodwin has been obsess ed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved \, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy a t Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece\, Frances. That is\, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientist s to join NASA&rsquo\;s space shuttle program. Suddenly\, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
\nSelected from a pool of tho usands of applicants in the summer of 1980\, Joan begins training at Houst on&rsquo\;s Johnson Space Center\, alongside an exceptional group of fello w candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin\, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest\; mission speciali st Lydia Danes\, who has worked too hard to play nice\; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald\, who is navigating her own secrets\; and Vanessa Ford\, the ma gnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer\, who can fix any engine and f ly any plane.
\nAs the new astronauts become unlikely friends and pr epare for their first flights\, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light\, Joan begins to question everything she think s she knows about her place in the observable universe.
\nThen\, in December of 1984\, on mission STS-LR9\, it all changes in an instant.
\ nFast-paced\, thrilling\, and emotional\, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places\, creati ng complex protagonists\, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love&mdash\;this time among the stars.
\n< p>--From Goodreads.com\n