Joan Goodwin was inspired to apply to NASA after her sister Barbara called about Nichelle Nichols’s recruitment campaign; rejected in the first round, she reapplied in 1979, endured rigorous medical and psychological testing at Johnson Space Center, and was selected into Astronaut Group 9 alongside Vanessa Ford. In 1980–1981, Joan left Rice University, moved near JSC, grew close to her cohort—including John “Griff” Griffin, Lydia Danes, Donna Fitzgerald, Hank Redmond, and Steve Hagen—and began a deepening connection with Vanessa through stargazing trips, shared training milestones like watching STS-1, and candid conversations about family, faith, and ambition.

Through 1981, Joan experienced a sexual awakening that clarified her attraction to women, reconciled a brief misstep with Griff, and grew closer to Vanessa amid debates about navigating sexism within NASA. After Group 9’s promotion to full astronauts in August 1981, Joan and Vanessa admitted their feelings and began a secret relationship, maintaining a careful public distance at work while privately sharing nights and discussing belief, love, and risk; they exchanged declarations of love that fall. In 1982–1983, career demands strained their time, but their bond steadied; Vanessa pursued flying opportunities and Cape duties, and the pair weathered painful arguments while choosing each other. Sally Ride’s successful STS-7 in 1983 affirmed their prospects, and later that year Vanessa was assigned to STS-LR9 with Steve, Hank, Griff, and Lydia.

As Joan’s own 1984 mission neared, she secured a CAPCOM assignment to strengthen ties with Mission Control, while Vanessa trained separately. Family tensions with Barbara worsened, particularly over Frances’s loneliness and holidays, but Joan and Vanessa supported Frances, encouraging her ambitions. On the eve of quarantine, Joan and Vanessa shared a quiet farewell amid rising scrutiny, Donna’s joyful motherhood, and Joan’s worry for Frances. After Joan returned safely from her late-1984 flight, she discovered Frances had been left alone at boarding school for Thanksgiving; Joan confronted Barbara, obtained written authorization, withdrew Frances, and promised permanent, unconditional care, bringing her home to start a new family life.

On December 29, 1984, during STS-LR9, Joan served as CAPCOM while the crew prepared an EVA to free stuck payload latches for the Arch-6 satellite. Shortly after airlock operations, a catastrophic cabin-pressure event devastated the crew: Vanessa, the only responsive member, stabilized the orbiter with Joan’s guidance, confirmed that Steve and Hank were dead, found Griff injured and Lydia unconscious but alive, and began preparing for an emergency deorbit to Edwards Air Force Base. Vanessa secured the cabin, applied biomedical sensors, and stowed the bodies in the airlock while Mission Control planned a three-orbit return to reach trauma care for Griff and treatment for Lydia.

With the payload bay damaged by debris from the breach, Vanessa executed a second EVA to manually latch the warped right payload bay door. She methodically closed the forward bulkhead latches, fighting panic and grief as she worked a ratchet on the gearboxes, and tried to reduce a dangerous residual gap. In the bay, she wrestled with the central dilemma: any delay to fix the doors would likely cost Lydia’s remaining chance, yet attempting reentry with unsecured latches risked destroying the shuttle and killing all aboard. Joan, relaying the flight surgeon’s assessment and the unknowns of reentry tolerances, told Vanessa their best chance to land Navigator was to get the doors as flat and latched as possible and emphasized that they could not risk losing her.

Accepting that Lydia had saved them by sealing the hull leak and that time was running out, Vanessa resolved to continue the painstaking repairs despite fear and heartbreak. She focused on breathing and procedure, determined to finish the latching, protect the shuttle, and make it home to Joan and Frances, even as she understood that saving the vehicle and herself might mean losing Lydia. The crisis remained precarious as Vanessa worked in the dark payload bay, their survival hinging on whether the damaged doors could be made to hold through reentry.