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Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Atmosphere: A Love Story

Joan Goodwin is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates. As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, she begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

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Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

June 2025

From the time I was a young girl, I loved the space program. It was not just what happened in the skies that intrigued me, but also what transpired at Mission Control. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s ATMOSPHERE gave me a big dose of both.

Joan Goodwin has been looking at the stars since she was a child. She is working as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University when she finds out that they are accepting female scientists at NASA’s space shuttle program. She applies and is part of the team that begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center during the summer of 1980. In these early days, the trainees are learning each other’s strong points and what they need to think about as space travelers.

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