ABC has slotted The Astronaut Wives Club, its long-in-the-works drama series adaptation of the book by Lily Koppel. The show, from ABC Studios, Fake Empire and Groundswell, will premiere on Thursday, June 18, at 8 PM, leading to the two-hour season premiere of Mistresses.
Originally picked up straight-to-series for last summer, when it also was slated to air on Thursdays but at 9 PM, Astronaut Wives Clubs last April was pushed to midseason 2015 to undergo creative changes.
Written by Stephanie Savage based on Koppel’s book, Astronaut Wives Club tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history during the height of the space race. In its first incarnation, the series was to cover only the wives of the astronauts from the Mercury missions. Its scope was subsequently expanded to also include the Gemini and Apollo missions.
The Astronaut Wives Club stars JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Betty Grissom; Yvonne Strahovski as Rene Carpenter; Dominique McElligott as Louise Shepard; Odette Annable as Trudy Cooper; Erin Cummings as Marge Slayton; Azure Parsons as Annie Glenn; Zoe Boyle as Jo Schirra; Desmond Harrington as Alan Shepard; Bret Harrison as Gordo Cooper; Wilson Bethel as Scott Carpenter; Kenneth Mitchell as Deke Slayton; Joel Johnstone as Gus Grissom; Sam Reid as John Glenn and Aaron McCusker as Wally Schirra. The first episode was directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education).
The Astronaut Wives Club is executive produced by Savage, Josh Schwartz, Len Goldstein, Michael London and Janice Williams.
