Hitting the Books: NASA's Class 8 broke color barriers and glass ceilings alike

America's first astronauts from the 1960s were all pulled from the highest ranks of the nation's military. As such, NASA's first few classes tended to conform to a rather specific demographic theme — white, male, flattop haircut you could set a watch too. By the mid-70's however, the space agency had gotten with the times and opened up the spacewalking profession to more than former Air Force and Navy test pilots. In The New Guys, author Meredith Bagby follows the exploits of NASA's Astronaut class of 1978 — "Class 8," America's first women, African Americans, Asian American, and gay person to fly to space — from the team's selection through their mastering of cutting-edge technologies aboard the Space Shuttle and their history-making orbital missions. In the excerpt below, Class 8 receives a brutal introduction to the dangers that await them. Harper Collins PublishingFrom The New Guys by Meredith Bagby. Copyright © 2023 by Meredith Bagby. Reprinted courtesy of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Johnson Space Center, Houston. July 1978“Hey! We’ve got a fire in the cockpit!” a man screamed, then his voice cut out. Within seconds, another desperate voice cut through the static.“We’ve got a bad fire . . . !” the second man shouted in pain.“We’re burning up . . . !!!” a third howled.Then the transmission faded into nothing but static.In one of the many tiered seats in Mission Control, Ron McNair and his new classmates listened to a recording of the Apollo... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-02-12 15:30:30 UTC ]
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Sleeper Hits From Big Houses

There may be no greater indication of how things have changed in corporate publishing than the results of an informal PW search for sleeper hits of the year from major publishers. We annually round up sleepers from indie publishers for a late summer feature, but we have not made a regular habit... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kindle Fire could hit UK in January

Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet is reportedly launching in the UK in January. Know Your... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon.com buys children's books list from Marshall Cavendish

Amazon.com has acquired 450 titles from publisher Marshall Cavendish, marking the retailer's... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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World Book Night 2012 to target prisons and hospitals

Half of the one million books to be given away on the next World Book Night on April 23rd 2012... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple, Book Publishers Face European Antitrust Probe

Apple's entry into the ebook business hasn't been a huge success, but it has still registered with European antitrust regulators. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book sales continue to climb ahead of Christmas

Printed book sales soared by £8.8m week-on-week last week, with the latest edition of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Decoder Blog: Many Online Book Buyers First Shop Around in Stores

According to a survey, 24 percent of people who said they had bought books from an online retailer in the last month also said they had seen the book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore first. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Melville House Finds Hit for the 99%

Although the staff at Melville House originally envisioned David Graeber’s new book as a short work on the economy, it just kept growing until Debt: The First 5,000 Years, a now 550-page comprehensive work on the impact of financial issues on people, was eventually published this past summer.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mukherjee scoops £10,000 Guardian First Book Award

The only non-fiction title shortlisted for the 2011 Guardian First Book Award has taken home the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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FSG Gets Cozy With the Wolverines for Breakout Hit

Stoking the excitement, or the anger, of sports fans can be highly effective. Just ask FSG, which has a sleeper hit on its hands after reaching out to Michigan Wolverine football fans for its book about former head coach, Rich Rodriguez. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Irish Sports Book of the Year shortlist revealed

Titles on rugby, cycling, horse racing and Gaelic games have been shortlisted for this year... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Traverse City Is for Book Lovers

Megan Raphael, executive director of the National Writers Series, a literary nonprofit organization, in Traverse City, Mich., insists that local government leaders should declare it a “book city.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VIDEO: Kerouac's 'lost' book published

American author Jack Kerouac's first ever novel, which was thought to be lost, has been published 40 years after his death. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Book Census shows rates creep up

Digital royalty rates paid to authors by publishers are increasing, though there remains... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Pulls E-Books from Libraries, Including Kindle Versions

They publisher may want to make sure that library ebooks can't be easily stripped of DRM and kept by a borrower without penalty. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eclipse passes two million barrier

Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse, the third book in her bestselling Twilight series, has become the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Cuban Takes Shot at Writing an E-Book

Mark Cuban has 335,000 friends on Facebook and 760,000 followers on Twitter. Monday, the Internet billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team will test just how friendly those fans really are. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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International Bestsellers, November 2011: Literary Novels Hit in Germany, Italy

The top three fiction titles in Germany were all debuts in October, led by In Times of Fading Light, which recently won the 2011 German Book Prize and is set for publication in the U.S. by Graywolf Press in fall 2013. Umberto Eco’s newest book, The Prague Cemetery, which debuted at #3, is newly... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Full Circle to publish UEA famous graduates book

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 17/11/2011 - 06:45 Full Circle Editions is to publish Body of Work, celebrating 40 years of the University of East Anglia writing course, associated with authors such as Rose Tremain and Ian McEwan, on 1st December. Edited by Giles Foden, the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook 'Idiot's Guide' Inadvertently Makes Case for E-Books

Writing a how-to book in a static medium like paper about something as dynamic as Facebook is challenging at best and at worst...well...idiocy. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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