58 pages • 1-hour read
Atmosphere: A Love Story
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Chapters 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section discusses anti-gay bias, gender discrimination, death, child abuse, and brief mentions of substance use.
Chapter 4 Summary: “December 29, 1984”
Once the airlock and main cabin finish repressurizing, Vanessa enters the cabin. She pulls Griff in along with her and struggles to remove their spacesuits. She regrets letting Griff leave the airlock open. He wouldn’t be injured otherwise.
She finds Hank and Steven dead and informs Mission Control over the feed. She finds Lydia a moment later, unconscious, floating near a patch on the shuttle’s wall that she must have completed just before passing out. Vanessa laughs at the irony that Lydia is the one who saved them.
Joan informs Vanessa that Lydia and Griff are in critical condition and will need treatment within 10 hours to survive. Mission Control is formulating a plan for the shuttle’s reentry. Vanessa confesses that she and Griff left the airlock hatch open and then begins to prepare for deorbit. She must ensure that all loose items are secure, since otherwise they may become projectiles during reentry. Horrified, she realizes she must store Hank and Steve’s bodies in the airlock. She tries not to think about Steve’s wife, Helene, or Hank’s wife, Donna, who recently gave birth to their daughter, Thea. She also regrets not trying harder to understand Lydia.
Joan speaks over the feed again. Mission Control has a plan to land the Navigator safely at Edwards Air Force base in three “revs” (revolutions around the Earth), which should take about 4.5 hours. In Mission Control, Joan ignores the voices around her. She knows that Donna and Helene may be in the observation theater above but doesn’t turn around to look. Instead, she focuses on the task at hand. She knows that if they fail, everyone will grieve for their colleagues and friends together, but she’ll carry a secret burden alone. She reminds herself that Vanessa is still alive.
She talks Vanessa through the deorbit preparations and wishes she could tell Vanessa what she’s feeling but dares not. Every person in Mission Control would hear her. A tech says that some latches on the shuttle are malfunctioning and must be closed manually. This will require Vanessa to put on the space suit and depressurize the airlock again, which will severely impact the deorbit window, but she has no choice.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Fall 1980”
Late at night, Joan is playing piano in her apartment when Vanessa knocks on her door. She just dropped Donna off at her apartment after a night of heavy drinking and knew Joan was awake. She compliments Joan’s skill, which Joan downplays with self-deprecating humility. Vanessa then asks for a favor: She has trouble navigating by stars and wants Joan to give her lessons. Joan offers to take her stargazing outside the city tomorrow night with her telescope.
The next night, Vanessa and Joan drive to Brazos Bend, a state park known for its good stargazing conditions. Vanessa packed sandwiches and snacks for the trip. On the way, Joan talks about Frances, who now says she wants to be an astronaut. Joan is proud that she might lead the way for young girls in the future. All the women candidates are awaiting news on which woman will be the first to go into space. Everyone knows that it will be a woman from Group 8, the group Joan first applied with. The women in Group 9, like Joan and Vanessa, will have chances later.
Vanessa asks Joan the worst thing she has done. Joan admits that she was well-behaved and always followed the rules. What she feels the most guilt about is when she snitched to her parents about Barbara sneaking out of the house. The worst part, she says, is that when Barbara came crying to her, she lied and pretended she had nothing to do with it.
Vanessa asks why she didn’t tell the truth. Joan confesses that the entire family always “tiptoed around” around Barbara because she’s volatile and likely to lash out at the slightest provocation. Joan has never been entirely honest with Barbara and doesn’t know what that would look like. In return, Vanessa explains that she was a wild teenager and young adult. She hotwired a car, stole money from a vending machine, and used both LSD and heroin. She gently teases Joan for being a “Goody Two-shoes” (87).
Arriving at Brazos Bend, they set up a picnic blanket and the telescope. Joan points out various constellations to Vanessa, teaching her names and how to locate and identify each. In addition, Joan shares the myths behind the names, such as the constellation Hercules. For her, the mythology is just as important. One of the things she loves about astronomy is the interconnectedness of culture and science: “It’s the gray areas that are most fascinating: ‘Is this astronomy or history?’ ‘Is this time or space?’” (89).
Joan says the stars make her feel less alone because they remind her that everything in the universe is made of the same basic elements, which connects them all with both kinship and responsibility to each other. Vanessa isn’t certain she has the same clarity of purpose. She fears that NASA will never let her fly a shuttle because she isn’t military pilot. Her father was a Navy pilot in Korea but died on a mission when she was six. She became a pilot because of her father but also acted out because of him. She felt lost and kept trying to drown out the sensation through wild behavior and drugs. Her father’s friend Bill saved her by teaching her to fly.
Over the next weeks, Joan is forced to reschedule many visits with Frances while the candidates go on a public relations tour, visiting Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Edwards Air Force Base in California and attending a state dinner at the White House.
Later, Joan, Lydia, Hank, Jimmy, and others board the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, nicknamed the Vomit Comet, which simulates microgravity. Joan experiences severe nausea. Lydia and Jimmy criticize her, while Hank reassures her. She knows that Jimmy will use it as proof that women shouldn’t be astronauts. Eventually, she realizes that Jimmy is simply afraid but was taught that fear, failure, kindness, and sincerity are weaknesses. He’s cruel to those who display such feelings because he hates them in himself. This doesn’t excuse his behavior but makes it easier for Joan to understand.
On New Year’s Eve, everyone celebrates. The first shuttle mission is scheduled in three months, at which point the shuttle Columbia will launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Joan thanks Hank for helping her earn her necessary flight hours. Hank confides that he finds some of the scientists pretentious, but she’s hardworking and easy to talk to. Joan is touched. She can understand why Donna would fall in love with Hank.
Lydia corners Joan to discuss who will get a space mission first. She’s intense, competitive, and cutting. She chides Joan for not taking it seriously enough. As Lydia sees it, the women candidates must compete against each other for a slim number of spots, and she intends to win. She acknowledges that Joan works “harder than almost anybody else out there except [her]” (107) but thinks she won’t succeed because she refuses to play the politics. Joan insists that Lydia relax for the night and go back to being intense tomorrow.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Spring 1981”
On April 12, the shuttle Columbia prepares for launch. The candidates of Group 9 observe. Vanessa and Joan stand together. Griff asks Joan to breakfast after the launch is over. They’ve spent time studying together and supporting each other, including eating meals together and hanging out in each other’s apartments. Joan thinks nothing of it when she agrees. When Griff leaves, Vanessa says that he likes her and Joan scoffs. Unnoticed with the growing crowd around them, Vanessa and Joan nervously hold hands as the countdown starts. The shuttle lifts off. Two minutes later, the rocket boosters fall away, and the Columbia continues up. Embarrassed, Joan lets go of Vanessa’s hand.
Days later, Joan spots Griff and Vanessa talking in the parking lot of her apartment building. Vanessa wants to talk with Joan. Griff confirms his dinner plans with Joan that evening. In Joan’s apartment, Vanessa again points out that Griff likes Joan. Joan becomes angry and Vanessa apologizes.
Vanessa shares that Lydia is being sent to Toronto to study the new robotic arm that future shuttle missions will use. This suggests that she’ll be the first of their group assigned to a space mission. Joan tries to calm Vanessa’s ire, and Vanessa speculates that Joan always plays peacemaker out of habit from dealing with Barbara. Then, Vanessa asks Joan to skip her dinner with Griff and go out with her instead. Joan agrees.
They go to a bar. Joan tells Vanessa about “the neighborhood boy who wanted to marry her” (117). He was nice enough, and her parents wanted her to marry him, but she didn’t love him. Drunkenly, she confesses that she has never been in love and doesn’t see the appeal. She doesn’t think romance or marriage are for her.
Vanessa praises her for resisting the expected, easy route for women. Joan objects, saying that marriage and suburban life aren’t necessarily easy. She saw how her mother’s life revolved around her husband and children and knows she couldn’t do that. Vanessa persists in trying to compliment Joan, saying that Joan, not Lydia, should be the top astronaut in their class. Joan dismisses her own accomplishments, and Vanessa tells her to stop, saying, “Let the world be as I see it for just tonight. […] Where I know I’m mortal but I’m not sure that you’re not a god” (121).
Chapter 7 Summary: “June 1981”
After a work trip to Mississippi, the candidate group visits New Orleans and goes shopping on Bourbon Street. Donna convinces Joan to try on a floral dress, and all the women praise how it looks on her, even Lydia. Secretly pleased, Joan buys the dress and wears it out of the shop. On the street, men praise her too. She’s surprised that even men who usually ignore her start paying her more attention. Griff flirts with her.
Joan observes Donna and Hank among the group and suspects that they’ll marry soon. Griff remarks on the romance, and Joan says she doesn’t believe in love. When the group ventures into a strip club, Joan, Griff, and Vanessa hover outside. Vanessa teasingly says that Joan would never enter a strip club, but Joan ignores her and walks in.
Inside, Joan focuses on the topless waitresses and the dancers. For the first time, she understands “why men were so obsessed with women’s bodies” (127). She finds men inherently uninteresting, but she can’t look away from these women. She watches one dancer with appreciation. When she turns around, she finds that Vanessa has left. Joan is tipsy, and Griff offers to help her find a cab to the hotel.
On impulse, Joan kisses Griff but hates it instantly. She pulls away, apologizing. She says she can’t be like that with him, and Griff says he understands. He suspected as much. When he suggests that she has feelings for someone else, she pretends that she doesn’t understand. He puts her in a cab and walks away.
In the morning, Joan wakes in her hotel room painfully hungover. All around her on the bed are sketches of the strip club dancer that she drew on the hotel notepad. Vanessa knocks on her door, calling out that they’ll be late for the bus. Horrified, Joan collects all the sketches and tries to hide them before opening the door. Vanessa remarks that she looks horrible and offers to help her clean up. Joan says that she kissed Griff but didn’t like it, though she did like the club. Vanessa says she suspected she would. Joan says she doesn’t understand, and Vanessa retorts that she would if she was honest with herself. Vanessa finds a sketch that Joan missed among the sheets. Joan refuses to acknowledge it, and they leave for the bus.
The next weekend, Joan arrives to pick up Frances for a day out. Frances sits in the front yard, locked out of the house; Barbara already left to see her current boyfriend. Joan spends the day with Frances, who is sullen and quiet. That evening, she asks to stay with Joan, saying that her mother doesn’t care if she’s home or not. However, Joan has to work. She takes Frances home and rebukes Barbara for locking her out and leaving her unattended. Barbara accuses Joan of calling her a bad mother and tells her to mind her own business. Joan apologizes and leaves.
Chapters 4-7 Analysis
In Chapter 4, the novel returns to the crisis in December 1984, focusing on Vanessa’s point of view as she tries to work through the problems facing her. Through Vanessa’s reflections, the narrative reveals more details about the lives of her now-dead crewmates, increasing the tragedy and emotional impact of their deaths. In addition, this chapter continues to subtly hint at Vanessa’s and Joan’s romance without explicitly confirming it, heightening the anticipation of the later chapters, which portray their slowly developing relationship.
Chapter 5 introduces two significant symbols in the novel, stars and flight, both of which represent (among other things) crucial aspects of Joan’s and Vanessa’s personalities and worldviews. For Joan, stars symbolize the complex connections that comprise the universe, connecting space and time, science and religion, and all living beings. Stars therefore give Joan a sense of belonging and purpose, or, as she calls it, “kinship,” conveying “comfort and responsibility” (90). Vanessa finds peace in flying, which is where she connects to “the real [her]” (90). Thus, stars and flight symbolically support the emerging theme of The Relationship Between Ambition and Sacrifice. Joan’s love of stars inspired her to become an astronomer and later inspired her ambition to be an astronaut. Similarly, flight inspires Vanessa’s ambition to be a NASA shuttle pilot.
The novel then shifts back to 1980 to again focus on Joan’s growth in the astronaut candidate training program. Joan and the other Group 9 women face constant sexism within NASA, both from the administration and from their fellow candidates. In Chapter 5, Vanessa laments how NASA conveniently devised a system to exclude women pilots by default without ever saying it outright. This highlights the systemic gender discrimination prevalent in the workplace in the 1980s, which constantly blocks Vanessa from pursuing her ambitions.
Another way the novel explores the theme of gender discrimination is through the character of Jimmy Hayman, who represents the most extreme sexist attitudes among men of the time. In contrast to Jimmy, Griff and Hank represent positive male behavior and attitudes. They treat the women candidates with respect and acceptance and do what they can to curtail Jimmy’s sexist comments. Though Joan appreciates their support, she resents that it’s necessary as it merely underscores her lack of power in a society that devalues women’s voices.
Moreover, the novel argues that women can themselves perpetuate sexist attitudes, as is evident in the character of Lydia, who functions as a foil to Joan. Rather than resisting and objecting to sexist attitudes, Lydia takes a permissive stance. She not only tolerates Jimmy’s behavior but rewards it by laughing and even adopts stereotypes about women into her worldview. She believes that this is her best strategy for winning in the unspoken competition among all the candidates, especially the other women candidates. The contrast between Lydia and Joan contributes to the theme of Navigating Gender and Sexuality Discrimination by highlighting the various strategies people use to deal with discrimination in their lives. During the shuttle disaster, Vanessa laughs at the irony that Lydia, who has always prioritized competitiveness over teamwork, is crucial to saving lives.
While Joan combats sexist attitudes both at NASA and in the larger society, she also wrestles with inner struggles. Through several encounters in Chapter 5 through 7, the narrative slowly reveals aspects of Joan’s personality that are readily apparent from an outside perspective but of which she seems willfully unaware. She professes throughout the early chapters that she has no interest in romance, believing that love, sexuality, and marriage are simply not part of her makeup. However, it soon becomes clear that she feels attracted to Vanessa and that their emotional connection is more romantic than platonic. Ironically, other characters notice this before she does, including Griff and Vanessa herself. Joan, meanwhile, pretends not to understand the inference. This self-denial is a symptom of a society that is prejudiced against queer desire and places enormous importance on heterosexuality and idealized images of “traditional” marriage. Not until the strip-club scene does Joan even contemplate such possibilities. Even then, she feels a desire she’s incapable of naming or looking at head-on.
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