Stories of the female pilots, physicists, and doctors who broke the stratospheric ceiling.

The Mercury 13 : the astronauts who never were -- Cosmonauts : Valentina Tereshkova : first in space -- Svetlana Savitskaya : no apron for her -- Elena Kondakova : long-duration stay -- Yelena Serova : ready and waiting -- American women join the space race -- Sally Ride : first American woman in space -- Judith Resnik : all she ever wanted to do -- Kathryn Sullivan : a walk into history -- Shannon Lucid : a Russian favorite -- Mae Jemison : doctor astronaut -- Ellen Ochoa : career astronaut -- Eileen Collins : space shuttle commander -- Catherine (Cady) Coleman : musical astronaut -- Pamela Melroy : piloting in space -- Peggy Whitson : space station commander -- Sunita Williams : breaking records -- Barbara Morgan : teachers in space -- World astronauts -- Roberta Bondar : living a childhood dream -- Chiaki Mukai : opening doors -- Claudie Haigner : French astronaut and Soyuz commander -- Yi Soyeon : first Korean in space -- Kalpana Chawla : a tragic end -- Liu Yang : a flying knight in space -- Samantha Cristoforetti : military pilot astronaut -- The future of spaceflight.