The men selected to be the astronauts during the “space race” were portrayed by the government and the media as perfect heroes and their wives were required to be just as perfect. This book by Lily Koppel provides interesting insights into the human side of both the astronauts and the wives, and often the women were more admirable than the men. I recommend the book for the detailed history of the space program presented in context with world events, such as the Soviet launching of Sputnik (fellow traveler) and the interesting descriptions of the wives and how they dealt with the invasive microscope of media scrutiny.
My wife bought this book and enjoyed reading it. Perhaps that is because she was a “military officer’s wife” during the approximate time period represented in the book. The pressures on her weren’t anything similar to the astronaut wives, because there was none of the media scrutiny. However, she had to attend classes on proper dress, behavior, and expected military protocols. It was made clear to her that my status as a young Army lieutenant depended on both of us being judged to meet exacting standards.
A strong point of the book is the detailed descriptions of the personalities of the men and their wives. The astronauts were mostly military test pilots; the wives lived drab lives in military housing and managed the households on low military salaries. They learned to deal with the occasional black smoke at the airfields, which was a sign another test pilot had probably crashed to his death in the experimental aircraft he was testing that day. That was undoubtedly a better life for the wives than the previous wartime experience of lengthy separations while the husbands were flying in combat.
The selection of the seven astronauts certainly changed their lives and the lives of their families; all became national celebrities. The men focused on the completion to be the best pilot and the wives understood that both of them were under intense scrutiny. The pilots could be no more than five foot eight inches tall, and perhaps that contributed to the competitive fervor among the men. The women wanted to promote their husbands while becoming students of current fashions. The children were mostly anonymous, or at least that was mostly the case in the book.
Selection as an astronauts brought wealth. Life magazine issued a half million dollar contract for the exclusive story of the wives, and that was divided equally among the seven couples. There were promoters and public relations people handing out gifts in return for endorsements. Houses and fancy cars were provided by various sponsors at minimal costs. The wives are portrayed as growing greedy as they became accustomed to the new life style. They weren’t happy when more astronauts were named and the pot of money had to be further divided.
The husbands seemed disinterested in anything but the competition, although some of them were willing participants in one-night stands with young women who threw themselves at the celebrity astronauts. The wives referred to the women as “Cape Cookies,” and were mostly surprisingly accepting of their husband’s bad behavior. Some of the men were ridiculously disloyal to the wives who often seemed to pretend there was nothing amiss. John Glenn was an exception, and he thought it was his duty to try to get the behavior of others back to an acceptable norm.
Alan Shepard, perhaps the most disloyal husband of the group, was selected to make the first suborbital flight. One of my favorite stories is that he hugged his wife and told her she had her arms around the man who would be the first in space. The wife asked, “Who let a Russian in here?” Her question was predictive, because Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beat Shepard into space and orbited Earth. Another great story is how John Glenn refused to demand his wife Annie let LBJ into her home because of her fear her stutter would be revealed on camera. NASA threatened John that he would lose his place in line for a mission, and the other astronauts made it known they would not take it. John later insisted that all the astronauts and their wives had to be included in the ticker tape parade that was organized for him. He had insisted, “They don’t go, I don’t go.”
Shepard’s selection came with the added bonus that Louise Shepard made a “…wonderful First Lady of Space.” She stepped out onto her lawn to give a press conference to the horde of reporters after she was told that Alan was safely aboard the rescue ship. That began a “…new Astrowife ritual—the post-flight conference on the lawn.” President Kennedy invited the astronauts and their wives to a ceremony in the Rose Garden. Kennedy was pleased to have a positive after the embarrassment of the failed Cuban invasion at the Bay of Pigs. The wives were fixated on Jackie, and the description of the events is interesting reading. Gus and Betty Grissom were not given a White House reception after his flight, and it is speculated that was because of embarrassment that the hatch to his capsule mysteriously blew and the capsule sank while he was being awkwardly saved by a helicopter.
The wives understood they were under a public relations microscope from the beginning and concentrated on wearing the correct clothes, having a fashionable hair style, and even worried at selecting the correct color of lipstick. They had all agreed to a shade of pink lipstick for the Life magazine photo that is the cover of the book. They were shocked when the editors decided to substitute red lipstick for the final magazine cover. The move of the program to Texas was a boon to the wives. Wealthy Texans lined up to provide expensive fashions for the flurry of public relations events and private social gatherings and they were provided free homes. The astronauts and wives met all manner of rich and famous people.
The astronauts agreed that women should not go into space, but they apparently didn’t tell the Soviets. Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (call signal “Seagull) orbited the Earth forty-eight times, and the book comments that she was pregnant at the time.
The American astronauts and wives accepted the great risks. Early tests of rockets resulted in spectacular explosions. I’m certain the men and wives understood this was a risky business even without watching test rockets exploding. Some of the men did die in capsules and some died in plane crashes. Gus Grissom and two other astronauts died in a capsule fire (he had called the capsule “The Lemon”) in a “dress rehearsal” for a flight. One official responded to a question as to whether the first men would be able to return safely from the trip to the moon by saying “Fifty-fifty.”
The later parts of the book detail the lives of the women after the initial euphoria and publicity. Several marriages wound up in divorce, and some women launched into interesting careers beyond being “astronaut wives.” That part of the book was where my interest began to wane, but my wife disagrees. She thought it was interesting to the end.