From computer scientists and software engineers to secretaries and personal assistants, women’s contributions to space exploration pushed humankind’s ability to reach for the stars. For decades, they were unsung heroes – now, they’re receiving recognition for their out-of-this-world accomplishments. With our ties to NASA’s engineering, we wanted to tell the stories of some inspirational women who helped America advance into the space age.

Katherine Johnson’s work as a NASA “human computer” appeared in 2016’s Hidden Figures, which was the first time she or her colleagues received wide recognition for their accomplishments. From an early age, she found a fascination with numbers and showed an aptitude for math. Her father encouraged her abilities and ensured she had access to the best education he could provide. In 1937, she graduated with degrees in mathematics, English, and French from West Virginia State College. She was 18. Unfortunately, despite her accomplishments, segregation limited Johnson’s employment options. She had a successful career as a teacher; however, when she heard the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) needed mathematicians to run complicated computations, she jumped at the opportunity.* Though she still faced adversity, her strength and passion for math fueled her, and she stayed as NACA transitioned into NASA. Her reputation with numbers earned the trust of the astronauts, so much so that Astronaut John Glenn asked her to check the work of the electronic computers before he flew. She mapped the trajectory of the first American in space – a flight that became the turning point in the Space Race – and her mathematical expertise was further utilized with her critical contributions to the moon landing.**

Mary Jackson, another woman featured in Hidden Figures, also worked as a “human computer” at NASA, though it was still NACA when she joined. Her supervisors noticed her skills and encouraged her to pursue engineering classes. She had to petition the city to allow her to study alongside her peers, but she succeeded in her courses and became NASA’s first Black female engineer. She continued to advance her career, though when she reached the point that they wouldn’t promote her further, she took a demotion to become the Women’s Program Manager. As a program manager, she positioned herself to influence the next generation and help them succeed. The drive to help others stayed present in many aspects of her life, and she gave back to her community in several ways. One way was with the Girl Scout troop she led for over three decades. Another was through her and her husband’s open-door policy to help students pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).***

Margaret Hamilton’s pioneer work in programming led her to coin the term “software engineering” so engineers of other disciplines would respect the technical knowledge required for her field.^ At MIT, she led the software engineering division, and her contract work at NASA overseeing the in-flight programs for Apollo’s command and lunar modules was instrumental in our mission to reach the moon. Her software displayed a warning and restarted when the systems went awry, giving life-saving reaction time and allowing the computer to reestablish itself.^^ Her Priority Displays error detection and recovery programs gave her essential knowledge that later became the origins of much of Hamilton’s Universal Systems Language (USL). Her thorough work with flight simulations, however, proved to be invaluable. She often had her child near her, and when the toddler crashed the system by pressing buttons out of order, Hamilton was appropriately concerned. The higher-ups doubted a trained astronaut would make the same mistake, so they didn’t see a need to make any changes. During their flight, Hamilton’s apprehensions proved warranted. The astronauts made the same mistake as Hamilton’s toddler, and her previous knowledge of how to fix the problem helped prevent disaster.^

Judith Love Cohen, mother to Jack Black, made a name for herself long before the actor. When talking about his parents, Black said, “They’re rocket scientists. I’m a rock scientist.” In fact, the day Black was born, Cohen printed the “rocket science” she was calculating and continued working on it at the hospital. After the delivery, she called NASA to let them know that she had solved the problem and that the baby was born, too. Her contribution in creating the Abort Guidance System (AGS) kept critical systems online and allowed the Apollo 13 astronauts to use the Lunar Module as a lifeboat to return home safely.^^^ Her insistence that the return to orbit initiative was included in mission planning helped save lives. Later in her career, her work on the Hubble Space Telescope enabled real-time controls to focus, change filters, plan observations, and collect images.+

Kitty Joyner’s path to success was won, in part, through a legal battle. She graduated from the University of Virginia, though she had to sue the school before they allowed her into the engineering program to study among her male peers.++ She became the first female engineer to work on wind tunnels and research supersonic flight at NACA. Shortly before her arrival, the organization finished the construction of the largest wind tunnel of its day – and Joyner used her electrical prowess to power the massive fans necessary to generate the tunnel’s wind current. She would later manage both subsonic and supersonic facilities, and her contributions to NACA’s wind tunnels prepared them to test space capsules when the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).+++

JoAnn Morgan loved math, science, and music from an early age, and she planned to be a piano teacher when she grew up. Instead, she became an engineer. Explorer 1’s launch into space and the discovery of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field fully ignited her passion for science and eclipsed her desire for a musical career. When she was 17, she secured an internship as an engineer’s aid for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which later became a part of NASA. She worked with NASA over the summer and attended Jacksonville State University to pursue her degree in mathematics. She gained the attention of Dr. Kurt Debus, who helped her become certified as a Measurement and Instrumentation Engineer and a Data Systems Engineer. These certifications qualified her to work on a Kennedy Space Center (KSC) team. With her brilliance, drive, and the allyship of her colleagues, Morgan became the most decorated woman and the first woman to fill an executive role at the KSC, serving as the center’s associate director.^|

The names discussed here contributed to early exploration; however, women in STEM still work to fuel discovery. NASA’s current record for the most time (cumulative) in space is held by Peggy Whitston, who has spent 675 days among the stars and became the first female commander of the International Space Station.^|| Susan Helms holds the record for the longest spacewalk with her nearly 9-hour extravehicular activity,^||| and there are many more who push for the advancement of human knowledge. After the success of Artemis I’s uncrewed flight test in 2022, the first crewed lunar flyby (Artemis II) is projected to launch in April 2026 with the hope of a lunar landing occurring during mid-2027 on the Artemis III mission. This campaign will put the first woman on the moon – something pioneers like JoAnn Morgan look forward to with great anticipation.^| The dedication shown by NASA’s first women to furthering our understanding of the universe inspires us to stay curious, follow our passions, and shape the world into a better place for future generations.

Sources

* https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/she-was-a-computer-when-computers-wore-skirts/
** https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/katherine-johnson-biography/
*** https://www.nasa.gov/people/mary-w-jackson-biography/
^ https://computerhistory.org/profile/margaret-hamilton/
^^ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/13/margaret-hamilton-computer-scientist-interview-software-apollo-missions-1969-moon-landing-nasa-women
^^^ https://allthatsinteresting.com/judith-love-cohen
+ https://now.northropgrumman.com/judith-love-cohen-and-the-female-engineers-of-tomorrow
++ https://www.kennedyspacecenter-tickets.com/women-in-space/
+++ https://engineering.virginia.edu/news-events/news/full-power-inspiring-life-kitty-obrien-joyner#:~:text=Kitty%20O'Brien%20Joyner%20was,Cold%20War%20aircraft%20were%20tested
| https://www.nasa.gov/history/rocket-fuel-in-her-blood-the-story-of-joann-morgan/
|| https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-astronaut-record-holders/
||| https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/helms_susan.pdf