Mae Jemison keyed the microphone aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in September 1992 and announced "hailing frequencies," a nod to science fiction, becoming the first African-American woman in space. Physician, chemical engineer, dancer, and expert in African-American studies, she embodied a refusal to compartmentalize her identity or choose between the arts and hard science.

This deep dive traces her path from a Chicago childhood, where a teacher tried to steer her from scientist to nurse, through Stanford at 16, medical training, and Peace Corps service that became unconventional preparation for spaceflight. It also confronts the systemic realities she still faced back on Earth.

• How refusing to specialize, what she calls skill stacking, created a category of one
• Her dual Stanford degrees, choreography, and leading the  ...