Hell On Wheels alumna Dominique McElligott is set for a starring role in ABC’s 10-episode drama series The Astronaut Wives Club, from Fake Empire, Groundswell Productions and ABC Studios. Written by Stephanie Savage based on Lily Koppel’s non-fiction book and directed by Nick Cassavetes, it 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. CAA-repped McElligott will play Louise Shepard, a real life “Sabrina” whose father was the head of maintenance at the Duponts’ Longwood Gardens estate. She struggles to uphold her “perfect” image and her complicated marriage once her husband Alan becomes the first American in space. Louise and Alan had one of the few marriages that survived the space program, staying together for 53 years. Originally scheduled to launch this summer, the series was recently pushed to midseason as its scope has been expanded from covering only the wives of the astronauts from the Mercury missions to also including the Gemini and Apollo missions, which also are profiled in the book.
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