Women in Exploration: From Human Computers to All-Woman Spacewalks

[SQUAD]

nasa:

Since the 19th century, women have been making strides in areas like coding, computing, programming and space travel, despite the challenges they have faced. Sally Ride joined NASA in 1983 and five years later she became the first female American astronaut. Ride’s accomplishments paved the way for the dozens of other women who became astronauts, and the hundreds of thousands more who pursued careers in science and technology. Just last week, we celebrated our very first #AllWomanSpacewalk with astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.

Here are just a couple of examples of pioneers who brought us to where we are today:

The Conquest of the Sound Barrier

Pearl Young was hired in 1922 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA’s predecessor organization, to work at its Langley site in support in instrumentation, as one of the first women hired by the new agency. Women were also involved with the NACA at the Muroc site in California (now Armstrong Flight Research Center) to support flight research on advanced, high-speed aircraft. These women worked on the X-1 project, which became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound. 

Young was the first woman hired as a technical employee and the second female physicist working for the federal government.

The Human Computers of Langley

The NACA hired five women in 1935 to form its first “computer pool”, because they were hardworking, “meticulous” and inexpensive. After the United States entered World War II, the NACA began actively recruiting similar types to meet the workload. These women did all the mathematical calculations – by hand – that desktop and mainframe computers do today.

Computers played a role in major projects ranging from World War II aircraft testing to transonic and supersonic flight research and the early space program. Women working as computers at Langley found that the job offered both challenges and opportunities. With limited options for promotion, computers had to prove that women could successfully do the work and then seek out their own opportunities for advancement.

Revolutionizing X-ray Astronomy

Marjorie Townsend was blazing trails from a very young age. She started college at age 15 and became the first woman to earn an engineering degree from the George Washington University when she graduated in 1951. At NASA, she became the first female spacecraft project manager, overseeing the development and 1970 launch of the UHURU satellite. The first satellite dedicated to x-ray astronomy, UHURU detected, surveyed and mapped celestial X-ray sources and gamma-ray emissions.

Women of Apollo

NASA’s mission to land a human on the Moon for the very first time took hundreds of thousands workers. These are some of the stories of the women who made our recent #Apollo50th anniversary possible:

• Margaret Hamilton led a NASA team of software engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and helped develop the flight software for NASA’s Apollo missions. She also coined the term “software engineering.” Her team’s groundbreaking work was perfect; there were no software glitches or bugs during the crewed Apollo missions. 

• JoAnn Morgan was the only woman working in Mission Control when the Apollo 11 mission launched. She later accomplished many NASA “firsts” for women:  NASA winner of a Sloan Fellowship, division chief, senior executive at the Kennedy Space Center and director of Safety and Mission Assurance at the agency.

• Judy Sullivan, was the first female engineer in the agency’s Spacecraft Operations organization, was the lead engineer for health and safety for Apollo 11, and the only woman helping Neil Armstrong suit up for flight.

Hidden Figures

Author Margot Lee Shetterly’s book – and subsequent movie – Hidden Figures, highlighted African-American women who provided instrumental support to the Apollo program, all behind the scenes.

• An alumna of the Langley computing pool, Mary Jackson was hired as the agency’s first African-American female engineer in 1958. She specialized in boundary layer effects on aerospace vehicles at supersonic speeds. 

• An extraordinarily gifted student, Katherine Johnson skipped several grades and attended high school at age 13 on the campus of a historically black college. Johnson calculated trajectories, launch windows and emergency backup return paths for many flights, including Apollo 11.

• Christine Darden served as a “computress” for eight years until she approached her supervisor to ask why men, with the same educational background as her (a master of science in applied mathematics), were being hired as engineers. Impressed by her skills, her supervisor transferred her to the engineering section, where she was one of few female aerospace engineers at NASA Langley during that time.

Lovelace’s Woman in Space Program

Geraldyn “Jerrie” Cobb was the among dozens of women recruited in 1960 by Dr. William Randolph “Randy” Lovelace II to undergo the same physical testing regimen used to help select NASA’s first astronauts as part of his privately funded Woman in Space Program.

Ultimately, thirteen women passed the same physical examinations that the Lovelace Foundation had developed for NASA’s astronaut selection process. They were: Jerrie Cobb, Myrtle “K” Cagle, Jan Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Wally Funk, Jean Hixson, Irene Leverton, Sarah Gorelick, Jane B. Hart, Rhea Hurrle, Jerri Sloan, Gene Nora Stumbough, and Bernice Trimble Steadman. Though they were never officially affiliated with NASA, the media gave these women the unofficial nicknames “Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees” and the “Mercury Thirteen.”

The First Woman on the Moon

The early space program inspired a generation of scientists and engineers. Now, as we embark on our Artemis program to return humanity to the lunar surface by 2024, we have the opportunity to inspire a whole new generation. The prospect of sending the first woman to the Moon is an opportunity to influence the next age of women explorers and achievers.

This material was adapted from a paper written by Shanessa Jackson (Stellar Solutions, Inc.), Dr. Patricia Knezek (NASA), Mrs. Denise Silimon-Hill (Stellar Solutions), and Ms. Alexandra Cross (Stellar Solutions) and submitted to the 2019 International Astronautical Congress (IAC). For more information about IAC and how you can get involved, click here.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[MechBFP]

Thanks for posting this Squad. It’s awesome you guys help spread the word.

[Poodmund]

You forgot to include the first female Kerbal in Space:

 

[Pecan]

Truly impressive that you [snip] fail to mention anyone from anywhere but the USA.  Despite having named a Kerbal after one rather significant one ...

Shout out to Valentina Tereshkova!

Edited October 23, 2019 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[RealKerbal3x]

18 minutes ago, Pecan said:

Truly impressive that you [snip] fail to mention anyone from anywhere but the USA.  Despite having named a Kerbal after one rather significant one ...

Shout out to Valentina Tereshkova!

[snip]

But I agree with you, this list is completely US-centric. @SQUAD how did you leave Valentina Tereshkova out of a list of women in spaceflight?

Edited October 23, 2019 by Starhawk
Redacted by moderator

[KerbolExplorer]

26 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

But I agree with you, this list is completely US-centric. @SQUAD how did you leave Valentina Tereshkova out of a list of women in spaceflight?

Yeah that's really odd considering there is an important kerbal named VALENTINA in the game

 

[MechBFP]

1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

[snip]

But I agree with you, this list is completely US-centric. @SQUAD how did you leave Valentina Tereshkova out of a list of women in spaceflight?

You do realize this is a copy and paste from NASA itself, right?

[Pecan]

2 hours ago, MechBFP said:

You do realize this is a copy and paste from NASA itself, right?

Doh!  NOW I see the little 'nasa' above the first picture.  *slaps forehead*

So it's just sexist and not racist as well?

Edited October 23, 2019 by Pecan

[Snark]

Some content has been removed and/or redacted, due to:

• leveling accusations
• politics
• open discussion of moderation

Folks, all of those things are against the forum rules, so please don't do it.  And if you don't like something the moderators have done, feel free to take it up with us privately.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Guest]

10 hours ago, SQUAD said:

What they said

I like how NASA let's EVERYONE have a chance to share their knowledge.

[kerbiloid]

Also not mentioned Svetlana Savitskaya, the first female EVA.

[pandaman]

Good for Squad to post this, but it isn't very obvious that it is a NASA article, so yes it does appear at first as if they ignored everyone else 

Perhaps @SQUAD could address the USA centric issue by adding a header that states something like ... 'Here is a copy of a NASA press release'... and also a footnote mentioning those outstanding women of other nationaliltes.

Edited October 24, 2019 by pandaman

[Curveball Anders]

And as a Swede I'm obligated to point out that Jessica Meir holds dual American and Swedish citizenship

[Skalou]

crap paper, shame for them to "forgot" Valentina Tereshkova. (and all other non nasa women except in the tittle)

[snip]

Edited October 25, 2019 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[Bej Kerman]

So what? Females are humans, and humans have done lots of spacewalks. This isn't anything new.

[Pecan]

Poppy Northcutt was excluded <- Bald statement of fact, without reference to anything that could possibly upset anyone's sensitive feelings.

Hoohoo, seem to have hit a raw nerve there.  Perhaps they just don't like lawyers?

[Sidestrafe2462]

23 hours ago, Skalou said:

crap paper, shame for them to "forgot" Valentina Tereshkova. (and all other non nasa women except in the tittle)

It's a NASA paper, expect it to be American biased. Not everything can be politically correct, even though I do admit that this is very heavily biased.

[snip]

Edited October 25, 2019 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[kerbiloid]

Tereshkova was the 1st woman in space.
Savitskaya was the 2nd woman in space and the 1st woman doing EVA.

[snip]

Edited October 25, 2019 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[Snark]

Some content has been redacted and/or removed due to, 1. politics, and/or 2. arguing about arguing, and/or 3. telling people what to do, a.k.a. backseat moderating.

Folks, a friendly reminder.  Politics is not allowed here.  If you want to argue politics, or throw accusations around, or impute motives to people you haven't met, then there are plenty of places around the internet to do that-- but not here, please.

If you don't care for the OP, that's fine, and nothing wrong with that-- feel free to say so.  If you think it leaves out stuff that should be in there, make your point, by all means.  It's perfectly possible to do so without attacking or accusing.

• Saying "It should be <different somehow>" is fine.
• Saying "It's <political assertion> why it isn't <different somehow>" is not.

Please don't argue about politics, or argue about arguing.  It never ends well, and inevitably ends up igniting flame wars in which everyone loses.

Please, also, don't tell people what to do or not to do-- it's not your place, you're not a moderator.  If you see behavior that you think is so egregious that it's breaking forum rules, then by all means report it so that the moderators can have a look-- but otherwise, kindly leave the finger-wagging to us.    You're welcome to address others' statements on their merits-- but not to argue about how or what they should be posting.

Thank you for your understanding.

[airtrafficcontroller]

Maybe in 1983 NASA was in the 0.90 "Beta Than Ever" version (waiting for mods to upgrade) while the Soviets already have Valentina 20 years before.

[Vanamonde]

The American space agency: "Here are some contributions American women made to the American space program." 

Squad: "Look at this interesting thing NASA said." 

Forum: 

 

This is why we've had to institute a zero-tolerance policy for discussions of politics on the forum. People cannot be reasonable about it, threads get derailed, and now no one is appreciating women's contributions to the space program because we're arguing about which women we should appreciate and how much we should appreciate them.