The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story

People magazine wrote of The Astronaut Wives Club A True Story: “The men catapulted into space in the 20th century were interesting, sort of. The women they left behind were fascinating.”

In the book’s acknowledgments, author Lily Koppel writes, “I still find it amazing that there is more computing power in my iPhone than in the technology that put astronauts on the moon.”

Many of the future wives of astronauts had been military wives during the war, familiar with extended deployments. Becoming an astronaut wife didn’t change her husband’s long absences from her home, but it gave them star power by association. The wives who lived behind the photos and featured articles in Life magazine found that their lives were full of stress, glamor and perks didn’t make life easy for them.

Certainly, NASA’s demand to pose as the “perfect family” has taken its toll on their marriages. Most couples divorced once the astronaut left for space. For her children, having a part-time father who was a public hero was fraught with pressure. In addition, the children, who rarely saw their parents, barely knew them.

Before being chosen to become astronauts, those selected were regular military officers whose wives revolved their lives around their husbands and children. They moved from military base to military base as her husband’s career required. As astronauts, the men were military who kept their rank, but were loaned out “to the new civilian space agency” and the men no longer wore military uniforms.

Traveling often, astronauts lived in many time zones and when home, many turned off their emotions, believing that a good pilot remains emotionless. A good pilot and a good astronaut requires to be alert and prepared for everything because they must be able to make instant decisions.

“…the wives experienced the same waking nightmare, imagining the dark figure of the base chaplain ringing the bell, telling her that she was now a widow.” Astronaut wives lived every day knowing that if one of her husbands lost his life in the line of duty, she would have to quietly and bravely resign herself to his death. This was part of her job. NASA ordered it and the world was also watching, judging.

The Astronaut Wives Club is not just the story of extraordinary women who were thrust into the spotlight when their husbands became America’s first men in space, the story is a time capsule of family life in the 1960s of Leave it to Beaver to the 1970s of women’s liberation. two decades when American families were changing drastically.

When Lady Bird and Lyndon Johnson went to dinner at the home of astronaut John Glenn and his wife Annie, Annie served their simple but popular Ham Loaf. Annie was well regarded by the other wives who regarded her as a loving and caring Betty Crocker. Before leaving the Glenn house, Lady Bird thanked Annie and asked for her Ham Loaf recipe, as Annie knew she would.

The wife of the first astronaut, Marge Slayton, who died in 1989, once said of the Astronaut Wives Club she started: “We were all finding our way through an experience that was a first: being wives of astronauts and With the husbands away, we feel like we need to support each other. So we started the monthly coffees.”

The women who make up the Astronaut Wives Club have the “right stuff.” This book about them describes their story well. A story interesting enough to make it into a popular 2015 TV series simply titled The Astronaut Wives Club. Book or TV series, this is a historical time capsule that everyone can learn from, especially those interested in taking a look at this era.