The Rocket Girls were the women that worked at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

(JPL) before the development of electronic computers. These women are mostly unknown, but they did the majority of all hand calculations for missions. Most of these women were called "

computers A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ('' computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...

" since they computed things.

Notable women

* Barbara Paulson was one of the lead female computers hired by JPL. * Macie Roberts was the supervisor of the female computers at JPL. She became the supervisor in the 1960s and continued her work for over thirty years. * Helen Ling was a human computer supervisor at JPL. Ling followed in the footsteps of Macie Roberts as a supervisor for the female division of computers. She recruited and trained females that were proficient in mathematics and physics. Her legacy includes diversifying the female populus at JPL and continuing the excellence of female workers at NASA and JPL. * Eleanor Frances discovered many meteors and comets while working at NASA.

Sources mentioned in

The book ''Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's First Female Rocket Scientist'' (2013) was written by George D. Morgan. The book ''Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars'' (2016) was written by Nathalia Holt. The book '' Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race'' (2016) was written by

Margot Lee Shetterly Margot Lee Shetterly (born June 30, 1969) is an American nonfiction writer who has also worked in investment banking and media startups. Her first book, '' Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win ...

. The movie ''

Hidden Figures ''Hidden Figures'' is a 2016 American Biographical film, biographical Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder. It is loosely based on the 2016 non-fiction Hidden Figures (boo ...

'' (2016) depicts the computers at NASA, including

Katherine Johnson Creola Katherine Johnson (; August 26, 1918February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights.* During h ...

, Mary Jackson, and

Dorothy Vaughan Dorothy Jean Johnson Vaughan (September 20, 1910 – November 10, 2008) was an American mathematician and human computer who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and NASA, at Langley Research Center in Hampton, ...

, and is loosely based on the book of the same name.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rocket Girls Jet Propulsion Laboratory faculty American women scientists History of women in California