About the Program
Tanya Lee Stone recounts the thirteen women who trained to become astronauts in 1960, many years before the first woman would be accepted into the NASA program. Known as the "Mercury 13" all the women passed their required tests but ultimately had their career advancement blocked due to what the author posits was gender prejudice. Ms. Stone's book is written for a young adult audience and she presents it to a class of students at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC.