They usually had math degrees and previously had no options in the South other than in poorly paid teaching jobs in segregated schools. The lab created a segregated unit, West Computing, for black women. In World War II, however, a labor shortage forced Langley to look beyond white women for these positions. Female mathematicians using large mechanical desk calculators did elaborate but often tedious calculating work so that male aerodynamicists could concentrate on the science. White female “computers” (then a job title) already worked for NACA at its founding center, the Langley Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia, as was true in other science and engineering organizations in the US and beyond. The book details the history of a little known group of women of color at NASA and its precursor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Now the flight of Friendship 7 has gained new resonance because it is the dramatic climax of a very popular movie, Hidden Figures, based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. Glenn, who passed away in 2016, became a national hero. Glenn’s three circuits around the world at last equaled the Soviet Union’s achievement of orbiting Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. ![]() Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom’s earlier Mercury flights, both achievements in their own right, had only been 15-minute suborbital hops. He became the third American and fifth person in space, but what made his mission especially important was that he was the first American to orbit the Earth. February 20 is the anniversary of John Glenn’s historic flight in the Mercury spacecraft he named Friendship 7.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |