ABOUT THE AUTHOR
‘The whole universe is out there. And it’s waiting for you …’
tells fifty stories of remarkable women who conquered space, changing the world for ever.
Since the very beginning, women have been central to space exploration. From astronauts to scientists, lawyers to teachers, these extraordinary women show us that the sky is not the limit, and that we can all reach for the stars.
Written by Libby Jackson, a leading expert in human space flight, and illustrated with bold and beautiful artwork from the students of London College of Communication, this empowering book will delight and inspire trailblazers of all ages.
LIBBY JACKSON is one of Britain’s foremost human space flight experts, and is the Human Space Flight and Microgravity Programme Manager for the UK Space Agency. Libby’s career working in the space industry began when she applied for work experience at NASA aged seventeen from her secondary school in Kent. Weeks later she was sitting in mission control in Houston. Ten years on, and after completing a physics degree at Imperial College, she was back working at mission control for the European Space Agency side in Munich. She was an instructor, a flight controller and finally a Columbus flight director on missions to the International Space Station. From 2014 to 2016, she managed the hugely successful UK Space Agency education and outreach programme that supported Tim Peake’s mission.
LibbyJackson__ 
LibbyJackson
The illustrators are students and graduates from BA (Hons) Illustration and Visual Media at the LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION (LCC), part of the University of the Arts London (UAL), which is a pioneering world leader in creative communications education, preparing students for successful creative careers. LCC courses are known for being industry focused with students taught by an inspiring community of experienced academics, technical experts and leading specialist practitioners. Generations of award-winning photographers, filmmakers, screenwriters, journalists, broadcasters, designers and advertising and PR professionals have started their careers at LCC, and today’s graduates continue to be highly sought after and win prestigious international awards.
www.arts.ac.uk/lcc
To
IMOGEN
and
LUCY
Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), proposing that the Earth revolves around the Sun
Johannes Kepler publishes works that define his laws of planetary motion, describing the orbits of the planets around the Sun
Sir Isaac Newton publishes Principia Mathematica, laying out the laws of gravity
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky publishes Exploration of the World Space with Reaction Machines, showing that rockets could get to space
The US National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the precursor organisation to NASA, is formed
Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuelled rocket in Massachusetts, USA
Wernher von Braun surrenders to the US Army and moves to the USA, leading their rocket development
Sergei Korolev, known as the Chief Designer, and the main architect of the Soviet space programme, is appointed
The Soviet Union put the first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit
The Soviet Union put the first animal in orbit, a dog named Laika
The USA put their first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit
NASA, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, becomes operational
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, orbiting the Earth in a 108-minute flight
Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to fly into space in Vostok 6
Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk from Voskhod 2
Luna 9, a Soviet robotic lander, makes the first controlled landing on the Moon
Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee all perish when their spacecraft catches fire during a pre-flight launch rehearsal on the launchpad
Vladimir Komarov is killed when the parachute fails to open properly during re-entry of his Soyuz 1 spacecraft
Apollo 8 is the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders on board
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are the first humans to walk on the Moon, while Michael Collins stays in lunar orbit
An explosion in an oxygen tank cripples the Apollo 13 spacecraft on the way to the Moon and threatens the lives of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert. They make it safely back to Earth three days later thanks to the heroic efforts of mission control
The Soviet Union launch Salyut 1, the first space station
The Apollo 17 lunar module, with Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt on board, lifts off from the lunar surface and meets with Ronald Evans in the command module. Humans have not returned to the Moon since
Skylab, the United States’ first space station, reaches orbit
The European Space Agency (ESA) is formed, merging the European Launch Development Organisation (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO)
The first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, launches
Sally Ride becomes the first US woman in space
The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes seventy-three seconds after launch, killing the crew
The Soviet Union launch the Mir space station
Helen Sharman becomes the first British person in space, and also the first non-US or Soviet woman in space
The Soviet Union is dissolved, and the 15 Soviet states, including Russia and Kazakhstan, become independent countries
Valeri Polyakov returns to Earth from Mir after spending 437 days in space, the longest flight so far ever undertaken
A fire breaks out on the Mir space station, but the crew are able to extinguish it safely
During a manual docking test, a Progress cargo ship collides with the Mir space station, causing a leak. The crew are able to isolate the module, eventually regaining control of the space station
The first module of the International Space Station, Russia’s Zarya, launches into space
Expedition 1 launches to the ISS, which has been continuously occupied by a crew ever since
Having been mothballed in 1999, Mir descends into the Earth’s atmosphere and breaks up over the Pacific Ocean
The Space Shuttle Columbia is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, following damage to a wing on launch, killing all seven crew members
China become the third country to launch a human into space, as Yang Liwei orbits in Shenzhou 5
SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize by flying piloted over 100 kilometres above Earth twice within two weeks
Atlantis touches down in Florida, at the end of the last Space Shuttle flight
China launch their first space station, Tiangong-1
First test flight of the Orion spacecraft, a new crewed vehicle designed to take humans to orbit the Moon and Mars
Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko return from the ISS after spending 340 days in space, the longest visit to the ISS so far
First flights of CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon to launch, taking crew to the ISS
First crewed mission of Orion
First humans walk on the surface of Mars
I have been fascinated by space my whole life. Like many of the women in this book, I remember looking up in awe at the night sky as a child, learning the constellations, hoping to catch sight of a shooting star. I was captivated by the Moon, bright and beautiful, by the stories of those who had walked on it years before I was even born, and by the Space Shuttles that were roaring into orbit.
But I didn’t long to be an astronaut or to work in the space industry – to me, those were jobs done in America, a world away from the suburbs of London where I was growing up. I simply enjoyed solving puzzles, trying to understand what I observed around me, and playing with machines and computers.
Three decades later, and I’ve taken my fascination with space and turned it into a career that has fulfilled and surpassed anything I ever thought possible back then. The story of how I went from one to the other is part ambition, part determination and part good fortune, but it is a path that I believe anyone can tread, just as the amazing women in this book have done.
At school, I liked maths, science, music, and learning how the world worked. Aged ten, I followed eagerly when the papers were full of the first British astronaut going to space – Helen Sharman. Six years later, my physics teacher, Mr Farrow, held up a yellow leaflet and asked if anyone was interested in going to something that sounded very exciting, Space School. Generously my parents agreed that I could go. So I trundled off on my own that summer, and spent a week enthralled by lessons in rocketry and engineering. To my amazement I even visited a company in the UK which made satellites. Slowly, I started to see that my passion for space might actually lead to a job, something that had never crossed my mind before.
In the first year of A levels, my friends and I were tasked with finding placements for work shadowing. I clearly remember us sitting in the common room, discussing what we would like to do. Some were writing to doctors, lawyers and vets, others to musicians or theatres. Someone asked what I would like to do and without blinking I replied, ‘I want to work at NASA one day.’ Two of us hatched a plan – we would email NASA – not for a moment thinking it would succeed. A couple of weeks later, we were flabbergasted. Not only had we got a reply, but they had said yes! So in March 1998 we set off for two weeks in Houston.
Out of this world doesn’t even begin to cover the visit, and all the brilliant things we saw, from the Moon rocks to spacewalk training and many things in between. But I will never, ever, forget walking into mission control, sitting next to Cathy Larson, the propulsion engineer, and watching the team practise Shuttle launch-and-abort scenarios. As soon as I put on the headset, heard the flight director bring the team of hugely talented people together, and watched as they harmoniously responded to problems in real time, I knew this was where I belonged.
I came back from that trip with a new dream – to work in mission control. How that was going to happen, I had no idea. I was a Brit and NASA only hired US citizens. The British government did not support human space flight, so after Helen Sharman surely we’d never have anything as exciting as another astronaut. I quietly filed my ambitions away, thinking it was most likely impossible.
I went off to study physics at university, then a fascinating master’s degree in space engineering, before joining a graduate training scheme at Astrium, the satellite company I had visited years before. I spent three years installing a new control centre for some communications satellites, and preparing for their launch, loving every moment of my work. But as I learnt that the European Space Agency (ESA) was going to become part of the International Space Station (ISS) and was preparing to launch a new scientific laboratory into orbit called Columbus, I became restless and started thinking about how I could be a part of the programme.
When I saw an advert for an instructor at the Columbus Control Centre in Germany, I applied and was very excited when I was asked to visit for an interview. After being quizzed on my abilities, I was given a tour of the facility. As my guide held his pass up to enter the control room, my heart raced. When I stepped into the cavernous room, I had the same feeling I had had a decade earlier in Houston – the peace and tranquillity of a control room, bathed in the glow of dozens of computer monitors, the beating heart of a space mission. Though I spoke no German and had no clue what moving to Europe would involve, when they offered me the job I knew I had to take it.
As soon as I began training flight controllers, I told anyone who would listen that I wanted to be one myself, and that one day I wanted to be a flight director. My managers took note and my tenacity paid off – before long, I was going through the months of intense training. I finally took my seat in mission control as a data and communications flight controller. Then three years later my impossible dream became a reality – I was in charge of a control room, overseeing day-to-day operations as a Columbus flight director.
My job brought together two of my great passions: solving puzzles and space. I led the mission control team during shifts, keeping the crew and the spacecraft safe whilst we worked to help them accomplish their daily planned activities. I relished simulations, when we were challenged with problem after problem. Most days in the simulated version of the space station ended with experiments that refused to work properly, malfunctioning life support and data systems, and often a fire or a water leak. The practices made sure we could handle real problems confidently and safely, and help the crew get the science experiments done every day.
I was just thirty years old, with the job of my dreams. What on earth would I do next?
In 2013, on holiday with a friend, I was waiting in the baggage reclaim hall at Munich airport and idly scrolling through Twitter. Suddenly I squealed. My friend looked over quizzically. ‘Tim Peake is going to space!’ I all but shouted across the airport. In November 2012, the UK government had somewhat unexpectedly decided to contribute to the ISS. Just six months later, much sooner than I had thought would happen, Tim Peake had been assigned a flight – finally a second astronaut representing the UK was going into space. I simply had to be part of the mission.
When the UK Space Agency advertised for someone to manage their education and outreach programme for Tim’s flight, I knew, just knew, that the job was perfect for me. Throughout my career, I had always believed that the inspirational value that space, and particularly astronauts, gives young children is priceless. Although I didn’t have all the qualifications listed, I applied, hopeful that if I could just get an interview I could show them what they were missing.