Early spring, 1952. Elma and Nathaniel are vacationing at a cabin in the Poconos when an meteorite strikes the earth just off the east coast of North America, causing catastrophic devastation. But even worse, scientists have calculated that the result of will be, first many years of winter, but then the planet will start to warm up. Eventually it will become so hot, that life will no longer be possible. It will become another Venus, in effect.
So the goal becomes getting to space and setting up colonies on the moon and then on Mars. Before that can be done, first they have to figure how to do that, starting with just getting off the Earth.
Elma and her husband, Nathaniel both already work for the space program. Nathaniel is an engineer and Elma is a "computer," someone who who is gifted mathematically and does the complex calculations required for launching a rocket into space. But as Elma observes that the preparations underway involve only white men, she decides she wants to be part of it too. Logically, if they are serious about humanity surviving off-world, then they have to have women off-world too. So women should be part of the astronaut program. But it's the 1950s and everything is run by white men. Women are considered too fragile and emotional to be astronauts. But Elma wants to prove that women are up to the job!
This was an OK read. It has a lot of technical stuff that I just didn't care about. In fact, I just skimmed through the last chapter as the author describes in detail the procedure for launching a rocket into space.
Here is a review by Kirkus.
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