Who Could Ever Compete With The Moon? The True Stories Of The Astronaut Wives Club
In 1959, NASA announced the formation of the Mercury Seven – seven highly trained astronauts tasked with piloting spaceflights of the Mercury program from 1961 to 1963. For the men, it was an exciting opportunity to do what they had spent countless years training to do, but for their wives it brought about unexpected fame and media attention.
Their story was soon turned into a bestselling book and TV series, titled The Astronaut Wives Club in 2015. It delved deep into the lives of the seven wives and how they coped with their newfound prominence – but what was true, who were they, and how did their experience compare to other astronaut’s wives? Let’s find out.
From Obscurity To Front Page News
Photo by SSPL/Getty Images
In the 1950s, space travel was something to marvel at. Man wouldn’t land on the moon until 1969, but NASA was working hard at making that a reality.
When the Mercury Seven were announced in 1959, it was inevitable that there would be a media frenzy, but while the men had their heads down (or up in space) the press concentrated on the women left behind. The wives of Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton had no idea what was about to happen… but who were these women?
