A Passion for Space

Marianne Dyson was inspired by Apollo to become one of the first women flight controllers for NASA during the early space shuttle program. She has an undergraduate degree in physics and enjoys sharing her passion for space at schools, museums and conferences. She has served as a technical reviewer for Scholastic, Enslow, National Geographic and Hampton Brown. Her children’s books have won the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator’s Golden Kite and the American Institute of Physics Science Writing awards and have been translated into multiple languages and excerpted for use in numerous state reading tests. A frequent contributor to Ad Astra, the magazine of the National Space Society, her science articles and science fiction stories for adults and children have appeared in national magazines and anthologies. She is currently coauthoring a children’s book about Mars with Buzz Aldrin for National Geographic.

Preface: The Moon Landing, July 20, 1969.- Space Girl Grows Up.- Welcome to Houston.- NASA Employee.- Shuttle Procedures & Training.- STS-1 Timeliner.- Preparation for STS-2.- STS-2 Timeliner.- Preparation for STS-3.- Lead Timeliner STS-3.- Secret Preparations.- STS-4 Flight Activities Officer.- Welcome to Operations.- STS-5 Fire in Mission Control.- Family Planner.- New Mother.- Working Mother.- Aerospace Consultant.- The Challenger Disaster.- Space For Everyone.- Appendix A: First Women Flight Controllers.- Appendix B: First 25 Space Shuttle Flights.- Appendix C: As-Flown Timelines for STS-1, 2, 3, 4, 5.- Index of Names.

"The book is well written, and flows energetically with a diarist's detail through all the many assignments to which she was entrusted at NASA ... . This book encourages, inspires, and delights, and should be on the reading list of everyone - educators, scientists, and particularly women - scientists or not." (Elizabeth Griffin., The Observatory, Vol. 136 (1255), December, 2016)