Hi. I’m Tanya Lee Stone and I’m going to read you just a little bit from the beginning of Almost Astronauts, 13 Women Who Dared to Dream. Chapter One — T minus 38 Years. “July 1999, one woman stands alone off to the side of the crowd. She paces back and forth agitated, excited, impatient. From the back, it is hard to tell her age.”
“Her faded brown, leather jacket and blonde ponytail reveal nothing, but if she were to turn to glance at the group of women on the observation bleachers behind her, you would see the lines of time etched on her face. You would see a smile tinged with sadness. Although the women behind her huddle close like sisters sharing a chuckle, a tease here and there, a knowing look, it is not at her expense.”
“They understand her need for solitude. This is an emotional time for all of them, but perhaps especially for Jerrie Cobb. It was Jerrie who led them in a quest to live their dreams, Jerrie who first believed they had a shot at all this, Jerrie who still to this day is fighting for her dream.”
“Nearly 40 years earlier it was Jerrie who thought she would be exactly where Eileen Collins is right now, inside a NASA craft about to fly into space.”