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Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. 30 Years After
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. 30 Years After
  45. Acknowledgements
  46. Discover More
  47. extras
  48. meet the author
  49. A Preview of "The World Gives Way"
  50. A Preview of "Nophek Gloss"
  51. By Laura Lam
  52. Praise for

Dr. Pippa Goldschmidt read the first half of the draft and gave me both astronomy help and space policy assistance. She’s also a fantastic author—check out The Need for Better Regulation of Outer Space, and her story in the Scotland in Space anthology. Danke (I feel like I’ve said thank you so many times I’m now cycling through languages). Merci to Professor Michael Dodge at the University of South Dakota for so thoroughly answering an email out of the blue from a stranger in Scotland asking whether or not you could legally steal an exosolar planet.

Viruses, Vaccines & Medicine

Thank you to Gabriel D Vidrine, Adam Christopher, Mary de Longis, and Peta Freestone for helping me develop the virus. I learned some particularly gruesome facts about infectious diseases in the process! Also, everyone get your flu vaccine. Thank you to Andrew Reid, author of The Hunter, science teacher, and friend, for helping me figure out the fight scene in the lab.

Other Research & Female Astronauts

If I were to list every book or article I read for this book we’d be here all day, and this is already getting quite long. For more detail, see my website under “works consulted.” I do want to give a quick shout out to NASA’s Houston We Have a Podcast, as I ended up listening to pretty much every episode.

A quick thank you to Jeanette Epps and Norah Patten, a NASA astronaut and an Irish aeronautical engineer, who were warm and friendly when I fangirled at them at Worldcon Dublin in the summer of 2019. Researching this book really came into focus when I started researching the Mercury 13, the women who should have gone to space around the time of the Mercury 7 but never had the chance. Wally Funk, you are one of my heroes. That’s why I dedicated the book to all female astronauts, past and future.

I tried to keep a list of people I sent the book to or asked questions, so hopefully that’s everyone! If not, I am so sorry and I will buy you a drink or a meal to make up for it, promise.

As ever, thank you, dear reader, for letting me imagine going into space and sharing that vision with you.

And… lift off!

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Photo Credit: Elizabeth May