SOLVED. YA Science Fiction. Boy wins a contest to be the first kid in space. Girl is runner up, he tries to outdo her. Read in early 1990s. [s]

[Funnyvalentine]

I probably read this book in elementary school in the early-to-mid nineties, possibly specifically 1994. A boy wins a contest to be the first kid in space. The runner up is a girl. He doesn’t like that, so he constantly tries to outdo her. He almost passes out during altitude training, and gets warned he won’t go into space. He and the girl then become friends. Before he goes to launch into space, she hugs him and gives him white socks. I think he does some sort of broadcast from space.

[Paige]

You might want to check out this thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Tab]

Moonwind ?

Here is the description from Kirkus:
Gareth, from impoverished Wales, and Karen, from rich California, enter a high-school essay contest and win a free trip to the American moonbase. (view spoiler)[There they encounter Bethkahn, a stranded noncorporeal alien whose colleagues, millenia ago, were the enabling intelligence that sparked the evolution of ape into man. (hide spoiler)]

Do you remember the cover?
Part of a series?

[Funnyvalentine]

Tab wrote: "Moonwind ?

Here is the description from Kirkus:
Gareth, from impoverished Wales, and Karen, from rich California, enter a high-school essay contest and w..."

No, that's not it, but thank you. I don't think it was part of a series and I don't remember the cover.

[Funnyvalentine]

Funnyvalentine wrote: "I probably read this book in elementary school in the early-to-mid nineties, possibly specifically 1994. A boy wins a contest to be the first kid in space. The runner up is a girl. He doesn’t like ..."

Thanks! I've looked at that, and unfortunately none of those are the book either.

[Tab]

Countdown
There is a scene with the white socks. You can read it on OpenLibrary.

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL98235...

[Funnyvalentine]

Yes!!! That’s it!!!