Book Review: Eyes to the Stars
Category: Nonfiction Reviewed by: Clifford R. McMurray Title: Eyes to the Stars: A Memoir for the Space Shuttle Generation Author: Steven A. Hawley, PhD Format: Hardcover/Kindle Pages: 464 Publisher: Bookpress Publishing Date: July 2026 Retail Price: $39.95/$13.95 ISBN: 978-1960259578 Find this book When he joined the NASA astronaut corps in 1978, Steven Hawley was the youngest person ever selected for that elite group. As a member of NASA’s Astronaut Group 8, he was one of the TFNGs (“Thirty-Five New Guys”), the first group of astronauts specifically selected to fly the Space Shuttle. He wasn’t a pilot; he was a freshly minted PhD astronomer with a degree in astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. With Shuttle about to fly, NASA wanted scientist astronauts as well as pilots. As a boy, Hawley loved the stars and read about the idea that telescopes orbiting in space above Earth’s atmosphere would give much clearer views than any telescope on Earth. He dreamed about being an astronomer working in space on one of those telescopes. As it turned out, space tele