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2024-07-02 03:22:06
Throughout history women have often been made invisible. People talk about the great deeds of great men, but there are many women who played an important role and who we are just now getting to know. This is the case of Frances “Poppy” Northcutt She was an engineer on the Apollo mission planning and analysis support team. Her responsibility was vital: ensuring the astronauts returned safely to Earth from lunar orbit. Northcutt worked under intense pressure to fulfill the president’s mandate. John F. Kennedy to land a human on the moon and return safely before the decade was out.
Northcutt and his team faced numerous technical challenges. The task of creating and perfecting the return trajectory was complex, especially given the limited technology of the time. During Apollo 8, the first manned mission to orbit the moon and return to Earth, his team developed and fine-tuned the return trajectory in real time, using primitive computer tools. The astronauts had to perform critical maneuvers without communication with control because of the spacecraft’s position behind the moon.
Despite her technical achievements, Northcutt also became the focus of media attention due to her gender, being the first woman to work as an engineer within mission control. Headlines often described her in a sexist manner, highlighting her appearance rather than her professional achievements. Despite these challenges, Northcutt felt a responsibility to show that women could play crucial roles in aerospace engineering.
Northcutt’s job at NASA was not easy. Upon joining TRW, a NASA contracting agency, in 1965, she was initially given the title of “woman computer,” reflecting the gender bias of the time. Restrictive labor laws also limited her working hours, making it difficult for her to be promoted. However, Northcutt persevered, and was eventually promoted to the male technical team, playing a more prominent role in the space race against the USSR.
During the Apollo 13 mission, Northcutt and his team received the message, “Houston, we have a problem.” The pressure was immense, and the atmosphere in control was tense; Poppy worked on planning the trajectory that could bring the astronauts back to Earth. She had programmed the software that calculated the maneuvers.
Despite her professional success, Northcutt faced discrimination both in the media and in her personal environment. Her father, instead of celebrating her professional achievements, expressed his desire to see her engagement announced in the local newspaper. In 1968 she gave an interview on one of ABC’s programs to talk about her work on the Apollo missions, and the presenter Jules Bergman He asked her questions about her physical appearance: “How much attention do the men in mission control pay to a pretty girl wearing a miniskirt?” he asked. “It is said that when you walk into the operations control room, the mission stops dead.”
Such attitudes only strengthened her resolve. In 1970, Northcutt joined the women’s strike for equality, which marked the beginning of her activism in the fight for women’s rights.
Eventually, her activism led her away from engineering. In the 1980s, Northcutt became a criminal defense attorney, using her legal training to fight for civil rights. She recognized that her success was made possible by many low-income women of color who remained in the background while she received media attention.
Reflecting on her career in the mid-1980s, Northcutt noted some advances and setbacks in the fight for gender equality. “Although there have been improvements in some areas, problems such as sexual harassment and wage inequality persist,” she said.
The story of “Poppy” Northcutt is a testament to the perseverance and impact of women in male-dominated fields. Her work on the Apollo program not only contributed to historic achievements in space exploration, but also paved the way for future generations of women in science and engineering.
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