Atmosphere: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

It’s Summer of 1980. After Joan learns that she’s been accepted to join the astronaut corps, she quits her job at Rice. At her going-away party, another professor asks her incredulously how she managed to be chosen as an astronaut. Joan says, “Luck, I guess,” but then regrets saying that. Joan is used to being underestimated and going unnoticed, especially by men. Unlike her sister Barbara, Joan doesn’t attract men’s attention, despite her many interests and accomplishments.

Joan then tells her family that she’s been chosen to be an astronaut candidate. Her parents come from California to congratulate her. Meanwhile, Barbara is worried that if Joan becomes an astronaut, she won’t be available to help with Barbara’s six-year-old daughter, Frances. Barbara became pregnant with Frances unexpectedly when she was in college. Desperate, she called Joan. Ultimately, Joan transferred from her PhD program in California to the one at Rice to help Barbara, who lived in Houston.

Now that Frances is six, Joan can’t imagine not being part of Frances’s life. But Joan also knows that becoming an astronaut means she will have to move to Clear Lake, which is closer to Johnson Space Center but farther from Barbara and Frances. When Joan breaks the news to Barbara that she’ll be moving farther away, Barbara says that she’ll still need Joan to take Frances on the weekends because childcare is too expensive. Joan says she will. Joan then packs up her apartment and moves to Clear Lake. Shortly after she arrives, she runs into fellow new astronaut candidates Donna, Griff, and Lydia, who have moved to the same neighborhood.   

On the first day of training, Donna, Griff, and Joan walk to Johnson Space Center together. Donna says she asked Lydia to come with them, but Lydia didn’t respond, so now Donn thinks Lydia is rude. Vanessa walks into the room just as Antonio is preparing to speak. When Joan sees Vanessa, she thinks that she looks exactly like what she expected an astronaut to look like. That night, Joan returns to her apartment and calls Frances. She explains to Frances that if she passes the year-long training program, she’ll become an astronaut and be given a silver pin, symbolizing that she’s an astronaut. If she ever goes to space, Joan tells Frances, then she’ll get a gold pin.

Joan then goes to get dinner at a bar. After she orders, Vanessa approaches her and introduces herself. The two talk about the first day of training and about the cutthroat attitude that most people seem to have. Vanessa says that she and Joan most likely won’t be competing directly, though, because Vanessa is an aeronautical engineer while Joan is an astronomer. Joan likes the idea that she and Vanessa won’t be competing directly, and both Joan and Vanessa agree that they don’t want the competition for a spot as an astronaut to drive them to do anything unethical. The next day, during a training session, Joan sits next to Vanessa.

A few days later, Joan goes to the theater at Johnson Space Center for a training session. Hank, a former naval pilot, and Donna come in not long after. Based on the looks the two exchange, Joan is sure that they’ve begun a romantic relationship. Joan has always been good at picking up on those kinds of signals, in part, she thinks, because she hasn’t had many romantic relationships herself. She’s been on a few dates, and once, one of her dates kissed her. But romance and men have never interested her. Her roommates from college assumed it was because she was shy, but Joan knows it’s because she simply “was not like” her roommates.

Jack then walks into the theater to begin the training session. He explains that they’ll be discussing the 1967 Apollo 1 fire. In 1967, during a training rehearsal, a fire killed three astronauts. Jack then plays the audio recording of the fire, which cuts off when the astronauts died. Afterward, all of the astronaut candidates in the room are shaken as they grapple with the inherent danger of being an astronaut.

A few days later, the astronaut candidates go to a training session on a nearby tarmac. The military pilots will fly planes, while the mission specialists—including Joan, Donna, Griff, Vanessa, and Lydia—will learn to navigate the planes and sometimes briefly handle the controls from the backseat. So far, Joan has been put off by the sexism and misogyny of the military pilots. And she was especially frustrated when, a few days earlier, Lydia laughed at a pilot’s misogynistic joke. Joan was then grateful when Griff spoke up and said something to the pilot who made the so-called joke.

Before the mission specialists can undergo flight training, they have to do water training. For that, they go to Florida. Joan passes the first few training sessions—including one where she is pulled behind a boat and has to try and keep her head above water—even though they’re difficult. But Joan is terrified of the last training session, where she’ll paraglide behind a boat, detach from the rope tethering her to the boat, glide to the water, and then find her way out from under the parachute to inflate a safety raft and climb in it.

When they’re on the boat about to do the training, Joan tells Vanessa that she’s terrified. Vanessa explains the difference between bravery and courage. Bravery, she says, means not being afraid of something most people are scared of. Courage, on the other hand, means finding the strength to do something even though you’re afraid. Vanessa then encourages Joan to act courageously so Joan can tell Frances about it later. Spurred on by Vanessa’s motivation, Joan undertakes the training and does well. Afterward, Joan wonders what else she might be able to do that she hadn’t thought she could do before.

When it comes time for flight training, Joan is happy when she’s paired up with the pilot Hank. They’re both from California, so they share some of the same references, and Joan also likes that Hank laughs at women’s jokes and doesn’t display the same kind of misogyny that other pilots do. After the first day of flight training, Barbara and Frances come to visit Joan, and Joan excitedly tells Frances about flying earlier in the day. Barbara says that Joan seems happy and asks if it’s because she met someone. Joan tells her that it’s because she likes her job even more than she imagined she would.

In late August, Joan is at a party with other astronaut candidates. Joan has been overwhelmed by the amount of socializing she’s had to do recently and wishes she could be at home, eating dinner alone. Vanessa then approaches Joan, and Joan tells her that she’d rather be at home with a book than at the party. Vanessa says she likes that Joan is somewhat grumpy and says that it gives Joan some edge. The two then talk about movies, and Vanessa says Joan reminds her of Marlon Brando, while Joan says Vanessa reminds her of Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. Later at the party, Griff says that he's getting ready and offers Joan a ride. As they leave, Griff puts his hand on Joan’s back and smiles at her. Joan realizes that Griff has developed romantic feelings for her, and Joan wonders how she should go about discouraging his affection.