Published before Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, Memoirs of a Space Woman (1962) is a herald of second-wave science-fiction feminism and a product of the author’s feminist activism since the 1920s. A mother of seven children, the author examines through the fictional memoirs of her protagonist Mary how a professional life as a communications expert in interstellar exploration connects with the gains and losses of motherhood, both human and alien. Mitchison also examines indirectly her own role as a traveller in many diverse areas of the world, and her impact on local persons. Although Memoirs is extremely attractive as pioneering feminist SF, a closer reading reveals some shortcomings. Among them are the narrator’s clinical approach to reproduction, the lack of affection towards partners and children, the ageism that condemns stay-on-Earth mothers, and a certain gender essentialism.