Rise of the Rocket Girls
The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Ratings10
Average rating3.6
"The riveting true story of the women who launched America into space.
In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn’t turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible.
For the first time, Rise of the Rocket Girls tells the stories of these women — known as “human computers” — who broke the boundaries of both gender and science. Based on extensive research and interviews with all the living members of the team, Rise of the Rocket Girls offers a unique perspective on the role of women in science: both where we’ve been, and the far reaches of space to which we’re heading. " --(source: Little, Brown and Company)
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Enjoyable and informative. I learned a lot about JPL and more abt the women of that time period who worked as computers. It is similar in topic to Hidden Figures. Over time the computers became computer programmers.. Halving learned programming myself near the same time, it was fun to recall those days.
These people made major contributions to some of the big accomplishments of the last 50 years. Another related book is “The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II” which is about the building of the Oak Ridge facility as part of the Manhattan project. If you have heard of Ranger, Surveyor, Viking, Voyager, Pioneer, Mariner, Curiosity. Gallileo, Cassini, Juno then you will want to know more about the women that made them possible
