It's 1980 and Joan Goodwin is a professor of astrophysics, training to be an astronaut at Houston's Space Center. Outside her professional life, she has a complex relationship with her sister and is effectively bringing up her niece, Frances as her own.

Working at NASA, Joan's colleagues are exceptionally intelligent and gifted individuals and we dip into their life's challenges as well as their friendships and rivalry with Joan. Among them, though, is Vanessa Ford, an aeronautical engineer and she and Joan create a special bond. 

In December 1984, all their lives are changed when they are involved in Mission STS-LR9.

This is an incredible book. Despite being something I know very little about - space travel - I was fully immersed in this story and all the characters. It has things to say about our place in the universe, our commitment to our goals and ambitions, rivalry and sacrifice, our place in family and the workplace, and sexism and discrimination. And the ending is an emotional rollercoaster within a paragraph. Incredible.