Atmosphere

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six returns with a soaring, epic historical novel set against the backdrop of NASA's 1980s Space Shuttle program.

In the summer of 1980, Joan Goodwin—a brilliant university professor of physics and astronomy—takes a leap of faith and applies to become one of the first female scientists in NASA's newly integrated space program. Training at Houston's Johnson Space Center alongside an exceptional, competitive group of candidates, Joan discovers a passion, a found family, and a complex love she never anticipated.

Told through a gripping dual-timeline structure, the narrative alternates between Joan's early pioneering days breaking glass ceilings and a breathless, minute-by-minute mission control crisis in December 1984. When a catastrophic space incident threatens her crew among the stars, Joan must push human limitation, sacrifice, and the boundaries of love to guide them back home safely.