Trudy meets with Jerrie Cobb and is invited to join the first all-female-astronaut corps. The Mercury 7 are sent to San Diego for some glad-handing, but the trip sours when Shepard is caught by a reporter with another woman. Glenn helps Shepard get the story spiked, but his moralizing drives a wedge between him and the other astronauts that will directly affect who is chosen to go to space first.

On the Eve of the flight, Louise learns of Shepard’s affair in Tijuana. Trudy watches Gordo crack a joke about women astronauts on television. Glenn awaits the humiliating moment when the world will finally learn he won’t be first. Tensions reach a breaking point when Shepard and Glenn are forced together in a pressure cooker of weather delays, marital discord, and a circus of reporters.

After Shepard’s dramatic voyage to space, he feels underwhelmed and restless. Heeding Glenn’s advice, Shepard attempts to quell his ambition with gratitude for his wife and children. While Shepard’s marriage somehow remains intact, Gordo and Trudy’s may never recover. Meanwhile, when JFK publicly issues a challenge for NASA to send a man to the moon, Glenn’s drive to top Shepard is reignited.