Women on a Mission

From Jill: Hello, readers! Our long-time PBB friend, Suzanne Slade, was kind enough to fill in for me this month to let us know what she’s been up to. I know you’ll all be as happy as I was to hear from her again. Take it away, Suzanne!

Did you see the gorgeous (almost) full-moon last night? Just imagine what it would feel like to visit the moon! Do you know how many people have walked on the moon? Only 12! (For more details, check out DARING DOZEN.)

How many of those moonwalkers were women, you ask?

You probably know the answer. Zero. Women weren’t allowed to be astronauts on the Apollo moon missions, which ran from 1969-1972. (Fyi, Artemis III hopes to land the first woman on the moon in 2027).

Though women couldn’t be Apollo astronauts, their work was critical to the success of those missions. In fact, thousands of women made the moon landings possible. These women worked in a variety of capacities: engineer, chemist, seamstress, mathematician, nurse, instrumentation controller, and more.  

My new picture book, WOMEN ON A MISSION: THE REMARKABLE HEROES WHO PUT MEN ON THE MOON features 12 of these fascinating women. (Hmm. Where have we heard 12 before?)

While there are several picture books about the “hidden figures” behind space missions (including my A COMPUTER CALLED KATHERINE: HOW KATHERINE JOHNSON HELPED PUT AMERICA ON THE MOON), there didn’t seem to be a book that discussed the wide variety of roles women filled, and the obstacles they had to overcome. So I set about on a mission of my own to fill that void.

As you can imagine, the research for this book was exciting and daunting. My favorite part was interviewing three of the women. But of course, I needed to locate the women first. 

After quite a bit of internet sleuthing, I found potential snail mail addresses for five women. (The other eight women were deceased.) So I wrote five letters on my best stationary, and waited. To my delight, Josephine Jue, Phyllis Gaylard, and JoAnn Morgan wrote back and we scheduled phone interviews. Reatha Clark King’s son also responded for his mother who was unable to reach out due to poor health.

What a treat to chat with these three remarkable trailblazers and hear about their experiences first-hand. JoAnn Morgan, the only woman in the firing room for the Apollo 11 launch, explained how she monitored engineering chatter on her headset while overseeing streams of data on her screen to ensure the rocket was cleared for lift-off. 

Phyllis Gaylard shared how she figured out how to safely land the Eagle lunar module. She decided to use a soft metal called columbium for the long nozzle on its descent engine. So if Eagle hit a rock, the nozzle would crumple, allowing the craft to land upright. 

It was so moving to hear the emotion and conviction in the women’s voices as they shared their challenges, such as high school counselors who declared, “girls don’t belong in drafting classes.” Or people who told them women couldn’t be engineers — women should be teachers or secretaries. Or inappropriate phone calls they endured from male co-workers (obviously, some of this content didn’t make it in the book!) Yet, these women kept doing their best despite their daunting circumstances. 

So I’m beyond thrilled to share the stories of twelve brave, sharp groundbreakers in WOMEN ON A MISSION. I hope readers enjoy these inspiring stories of women who helped put men on the moon! 

EDUCATORS! Free resources for WOMEN ON A MISSION:

Book Trailer

Activity Guide

Author Video (created by Beth Campbell for her Authors’ Studio Teacher Guide.)

+ space resources on Suzanne’s website.