Rise of the Rocket Girls

by Nathalia Holt

  Despite her years, Margie still looks like the baby of the group. Her eyes twinkle like a twenty-year-old’s when she remembers her days at JPL. She’s unmarried but is surrounded by the spectrum of life: taking care of her ninety-seven-year-old mother and sometimes caring for several young children. She remembers how much a good babysitter meant to her during her working days.

  Sylvia’s retirement has been an active one. She and Lanny travel frequently. At her retirement party, after her friends sang her praises, she said, “I didn’t realize I walked on water!” Although she is incredibly modest, her work at JPL lives on, an integral part of our robotic exploration of Mars.

  Sue travels quite a bit as well, although in her case it’s essential to her job. As part of her work on the DSN, she’s been around the world, including Australia, Spain, and Greenland. Traveling to research stations means she’s often out of the country when missions are receiving attention from the press. “They’re always focused on the control room at JPL. The people really doing the work don’t get on TV,” she remarks. She’s seen the lab change in unusual ways, not all of them for the better. In 2008, the fiftieth anniversary of her starting at the lab, JPL changed the rules and dictated that all engineers were required to hold advanced degrees. Because Sue never finished college, they took away her salaried position and switched her to an hourly rate. However, once administrators saw how much overtime she was getting, they made an exception and switched her back. Sue is NASA’s longest-serving woman. She remains a software tester and subsystem engineer at JPL who loves her work and keeps a cache of old graphing paper for hand-plotting trajectories. You never know.

  During our tour of JPL, we walk past a model of Explorer 1. Barbara and Margie look at the model admiringly. The real thing crashed into the Pacific Ocean on March 31, 1970, while they still worked at JPL. As the women’s eyes fasten on the tall, slim satellite, their memories come rushing back. I’m privileged to be here to hear them.

  At the end of the weekend, under a full moon, they say good-bye. Among the hugs and kisses, the happy well-wishes between friends who remain close despite the passing of the decades, I hear words that stand out sad and solemn: “This is the last time we’ll see each other.” Buried in those final good-byes are friendships far more powerful than any rocket engine.

  Barbara Canright, third from the left, with the group that attended the Ercoupe rocket plane tests (Courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech)

  Successful tests of the Ercoupe rocket plane in 1941 (Courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech)

  Aerial view of JPL in 1950 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  The computers, 1953. First row, left to right: Ann Dye, Gail Arnett, Shirley Clow, Mary Lawrence, Sally Platt, Janez Lawson, Patsy Nyeholt, Macie Roberts, Patty Bandy, Glee Wright, Janet Chandler, Marie Crowley, Rachel Sarason, and Elaine Chappell. Second row: Isabel deWaard, Pat Beveridge, Jean O’Neill, Olga Sampias, Leontine Wilson, Thais Szabados, Coleen Veeck, Barbara Lewis, Patsy Riddell, Phyllis Buwalda, Shelley Sonleitner, Ginny Swanson, Jean Hinton, and Nancy Schirmer. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Barby and Richard Canright, 1940 (Courtesy Patricia Canright Smith)

  The lunch stand at JPL, 1947 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Bill Pickering crowns Miss Guided Missile 1955. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  The intimate atmosphere of the laboratory regularly brought employees together for merriment, particularly at the lab-wide dances held each spring and fall and during the December holidays. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  The computers at work, 1955. Helen Ling is sitting at the second desk, left side. Barbara Lewis is on the phone at the back, and Macie Roberts is standing on the right side near the window. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Barbara Lewis (Paulson) is on the far left as second runner-up for Miss Guided Missile 1952. The other two women, from left to right, are Doris Mahon and Judith Buckhave. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Jazz orchestras were a popular addition to the dances regularly held at JPL. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  A January 1958 press conference following the successful launch of Explorer I, with Bill Pickering, James van Allen, and Wernher von Braun holding a model of the satellite aloft (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Computer Phyllis Buwalda with members of the Explorer I team at JPL, 1958 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Celebration for Explorer I at JPL, 1958 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Bill Pickering crowns the Queen of Outer Space in 1964. As JPL’s mission changed, so did the name of its beauty contest. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Tracking lunar missions with the troublesome IBM 704 in 1959. Note the punch cards used for programming. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Here and in the following photograph, data reduction for firing of Pioneer 4. Computer Phyllis Buwalda shown in white blouse, 1959. (Courtesy NASA / JPL-Caltech)

  Sue Finley, 1957 (Courtesy Susan Finley)

  From Caltech handbook for new students, 1957. Sue Finley is seated on the right. (Courtesy Susan Finley)

  Helen and Art Ling, 1958 (Courtesy Helen Ling)

  Barbara (Lewis) Paulson receiving her ten-year pin from Bill Pickering in 1959 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Barbara and Harry Paulson, 1959 (Courtesy Barbara Paulson)

  Sylvia Miller, 1973 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  The Paulsons with daughters Karen and Kathy (Courtesy Barbara Paulson)

  Analog computer equipment in the old Space Flight Operations control center, 1960 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Tracking spacecraft position in the control room during the Venus flyby, 1962 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Helen Ling working on Mariner 2, 1962 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  The Mariner 2 team, 1962. Melba Nead is seated in the front row and Helen Ling is standing in the second row. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  JPL Mariner 2 float in the 1963 Rose Parade (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  The new Space Flight Operations Facility, 1964 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  First picture of Mars, captured in pastels, 1965 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Planning the Grand Tour in 1972, from left to right: Roger Bourke, Ralph Miles, Paul Penzo, Sylvia Lundy (Miller), and Richard Wallace (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Helen Ling’s twenty-fifth anniversary party at JPL, 1979. First row, left to right: Sue Finley, Merrilyn Gilchrist, Barbara (Lewis) Paulson. Second row, left to right: Irene Smith, Helen (Chow) Ling, Sylvia Lundy (Miller), Mary Nixon, Judy Wakely. Third row, left to right: Cynthia Lau, Suzanne Cheeve, Victoria Wang, Linda Lee, Kathy Thuleen, Margie (Behrens) Brunn, Joanie Jordan. (Courtesy Barbara Paulson)

  The big red dot of Jupiter as photographed by Voyager 1, 1979 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Voyager 1 in space, as imagined in an artist’s rendering (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Saturn’s rings as photographed by Voyager 2, 1981 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Uranus as photographed by Voyager 2, 1986 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Chuck Berry playing “Johnny B. Goode” at JPL in celebration of Voyager 2’s reaching Neptune, the last stop on the Grand Tour (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Neptune as photographed by Voyager 2, 1989 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Barbara Paulson (front row, center) and the Magellan sequence design team (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Pale Blue Dot, as photographed by Voyager 1, 1990 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Sylvia Miller with Mars Pathfinder rover airbags taken on July 4, 1997, when the spacecraft successfully landed on the red planet (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Panorama of Mars taken by the Opportunity rover, which continues to roam over a decade after it landed (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Sue Finley and Barbara Paulson, 2003 (Courtesy Barbara Paulson)

  Sylvia (Lundy) Miller’s forty-year anniversary at JPL, 2008 (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Barbara Paulson (with microphone) in 2013 (Courtesy Nathalia Holt)

  Sylvia Miller (with
microphone) in 2013 (Courtesy Nathalia Holt)

  The computers in 2013. Standing, from left: Nancy Key, Sylvia Miller, Janet Davis, Lydia Shen, Georgia Dvornichenko, Margie Brunn, Kathryn Thuleen. Seated, from left: Victoria Wang, Virginia Anderson, Marie Crowley, Helen Ling, Barbara Paulson, Caroline Norman. (Courtesy Nathalia Holt)

  Helen Ling (on right) in 2013 (Courtesy Nathalia Holt)

  Sue Finley in 2013. She is NASA’s longest-serving woman and has worked at JPL for fifty-eight years. She won’t retire until her latest mission, Juno, orbits Jupiter. (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  Acknowledgments

  I am incredibly grateful to the many women, all current and former employees at JPL, who spoke with me for this project. They are unsung heroes, without whom we wouldn’t have an American space program. I am so thankful for the many hours they and their families have spent sharing their stories and documenting their experiences. I wish I had space to include all their stories here, but certainly every interview was a vital part of the project and ultimately informed the book.

  There are a few women who sacrificed an extraordinary amount of their time to help me. One is Barbara Paulson. It took me twelve tries to find the right one by that name, but I am very lucky to have finally reached her. Without her sharp memory, quick wit, and friendly attitude, I would have never been able to write this book. I am thankful to her and her wonderful family, especially her daughters, Karen Bishop and Kathleen Knutson, for their invaluable assistance. Similarly, this book would not have been possible without Sylvia and Lanny Miller. Sylvia spent considerable time speaking with me, helping me obtain the right contacts, and sending me useful articles and photographs. In addition, Susan Finley’s knowledge was essential; Sue sacrificed many hours, both on the telephone and in person, to help me. I also especially thank Eve and Helen Ling. Eve has been a key resource for the book, and I am so glad for her efforts and her incredible baking prowess.

  Many thanks to the “rocket boys,” especially Roger Bourke, Charley Kohlhase, Bill McLaughlin, Dick Wallace, and Frank Jordan, a group of retired JPL engineers whose history-changing work is deserving of far greater recognition than it has received and whose memories and assistance have been invaluable.

  Without my incredible agent, Laurie Abkemeier, this book would never have existed. I am so thankful for her support, wisdom, and masterful editing. No matter the question, Laurie always has the right answer.

  I am very grateful for my amazing editor, Asya Muchnick. She has transformed a manuscript riddled with repetitions and errors into something special. Her fervor for science, and skill with the written word, have been indispensable. I’m indebted to Jayne Yaffe Kemp and Deborah Jacobs, whose invaluable skills have improved the manuscript immensely. Thanks also to Genevieve Nierman for her critical contributions. I am very lucky to have the team at Little, Brown and Company, who have been wonderfully enthusiastic and whose expertise has been essential.

  Many other people helped me with this book. The archivists at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have gone above and beyond to assist me. Many thanks are due to the indefatigable Julie Cooper, who has spent endless hours aiding my research, finding photographs, and arranging tours. Archivist Dudee Chang and historian Erik Conway have aided my research enormously. Special thanks to Sara Tompson, who helped arrange a special evening for the women who worked as computers at JPL. Thanks to P. Thomas Carroll, whose research and personal assistance were essential.

  I have been lucky to have perceptive readers on this project, particularly planetary science superstar, historian, and talented writer-editor Dr. Meg Rosenburg; the astute Dr. Jeffrey Cooke, an extragalactic observational astronomer at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia; and Julie Cooper, a gifted historian at JPL. Their insight and intelligence have been instrumental in shaping this manuscript.

  Thanks to the Little Turkeys, especially Erika Hilden, Autumn Brucha, Shelly McGill, Amy Blackwell, Kristin Rascon, Valerie Levitt Halsy, Clare Rice, Rachael Nelson, Laurie Weeks, Mande Norman, Amy McCain, Kiersti Pilon, Karlyn Goodman, Amanda Schuster, Lisa Brinks Funari, Erica Virginia Johansen, Rosie Forb, Callie Slama, Andrea Alexander, and Holly Button.

  Many friends and family have helped with this work, including Marco Katz and Betsy Boone; Joyce Boone and the deeply missed John Boone; Eva Grundgeiger; Ruby Frances Holt; Sheldon Katz; Rose Grundgeiger; Rachael and Gerry Coakley; Elizabeth Keane and Sean Cashman; Cynthia Boyle; Sarah Eliott and Jill Rubinstein; Chrissy Grant; Mrs. Jerome and Mrs. Cronin; J. A. and Joline MacFarland; Elizabeth Shaw; Emlyn Jones; Tim Flanagan; Amy Cantor and Scott Ambruster; Jennifer and Payson Thompson; Scott and Shea Holt. I couldn’t have written this book without the support and love Claire and Jerry McCleery gave me during a critical research trip; similarly, special thanks to my wonderful father-in-law, Ken Holt, who provided extra help and whose encouragement has been instrumental.

  To the most important people in my life: my husband, Larkin Holt, and our inspirational daughters, Eleanor Frances and Philippa Jane.

  About the Author

  Nathalia Holt is the author of Cured: The People Who Defeated HIV and a former Fellow at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Science, and Time. She lives in Boston.

  NathaliaHolt.com

  @NathaliaHolt

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  ALSO BY NATHALIA HOLT

  Cured: The People Who Defeated HIV

  Notes

  Research for this book primarily consisted of first-person interviews I conducted between 2011 and 2015. When possible, events reported in interviews have been confirmed by archival material. Interviews were conducted with the women who worked as computers at JPL, their families, the engineers at JPL they worked closely with, other researchers in the lab, and staff currently working at JPL. When writing about women and men who have passed away, I relied on the memories of friends and family and used documents such as letters and diary pages to re-create scenes. Many interviews, while not directly used in the final book, have been instrumental in informing the overall picture of life and work at JPL.

  Interview subjects include: Virginia Anderson, Virginia Prettyman Bertrando, Roger Bourke, Margaret Brunn, Marie Crowley, Janet Davis, Georgia Dvornychenko, Susan Finley, Barbara Gaffney, Roberta Headley, Joan and Frank Jordan, Nancy Key, Charles Kohlhase, Cristyne Lawson, Linda Lee, Eve Ling, Helen Ling, Bill McLaughlin, Sylvia Miller, Marcia Neugebauer, Caroline Norman, Barbara Paulson, Phil Roberts, Lydia Shen, Donna Shirley, Janine Bordeaux Smith, Patricia Canright Smith, Kathryn Thuleen, and Victoria Wang.

  In addition, many interviewees provided historical materials, including mission reports, correspondence, photographs, and journal excerpts.

  The following collections at the JPL Archives were utilized: Analog-Computing Facility at JPL; Director’s Projects Review: Agendas; Earth–Mars Trajectory Calculation Collection; Flight Command and Data Management Collection; Frank Malina Collection; Galileo S-Band and X-Band Telemetry Parameters Computations Collection; Historical Biography Collection; History Collection; Hsue-Shen Tsien: articles, photos, 1939–1970; JPL Annual Reports; JPL Bulletins: 1944–1958; JPL Computational Mathematics Collection; JPL Computer Group Memoranda Collection; JPL Personnel Lists; Mariner Mars Aperture Collection; Mars Pathfinder Assembly; Navigations Systems Records; Operations History of the JPL Electronic Differential Analyzer for 1952; photo albums, newsletters (GALCIT-EAR, Lab-Oratory, Universe); Records of the Flight Office; Robert Droz Collection; SEASAT artwork; Solid Propellant Engineering Section Records; Spacecraft Configuration Testing Collection; Test and Launch Operations Collection; transcript of interview with Charles Kohlhase, 2002; transcript of interview with Charles Terhune, 1990; transcript of interview with Gerald Levy, 1992; transcript of JPL press conference regarding the recent launch of Sputnik I; Viking L
ander Camera Test Collection; Viking Project Records; Voyager Computer Command Subsystem Document Collection; Walter Powell Collection.