People

By Guy D. Garcia

No U.S. woman has ever commanded a spacecraft, but Hollywood scriptwriters are known for flights of fancy. So in Spacecamp, filmed partly at the real-life U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., the plot contrives to have Actress Kate Capshaw take off accidentally and become the first American woman to take charge of a space-shuttle mission. Capshaw, who traipsed dizzily in and out of the Temple of Doom with Indiana Jones, confesses that "before this movie, I was unaware of space except for in grade school." The actress has been coached on the set by no less an expert than Sally Ride, America's pioneer woman in space. "She's been like a friendly consultant," Capshaw says, and communicated particularly "the determination, the fears and the passions" of astronauts. Ride thinks that one kind of passion does not yet belong in zero gravity, though. Responding to a question during an appearance at a women's conference in Milwaukee last week, Ride said she and her astronaut husband have no desire to be the first couple in space.