Lori Garver served as NASA deputy administrator, its second in command, during the Obama administration. It was a tumultuous time for the agency. The Space Shuttle was retiring, Obama canceled NASA’s costly Constellation program, and the agency was at odds with Congress on how to move NASA forward.

Garver was there for all of those conversations and takes a critical look back at what happened during her time at NASA in a new memoir. Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age takes a look back at those program battles and shines a light on a critical time in the agency’s history.

The fight to bring NASA into the New Space Age, that’s ahead on Are We There Yet?.