teacher salaries, 70, 74–75
math aides of NASA, 190, 210. See also computers (human) mathematicians black mathematicians, 227, 230
computers versus, 143, 229–230. See also computers (human) as “data analysts,” 259
engineering training of, 54–55, 143–144
engineers versus, 143–144
expertise over generalists, 165–166
first black doctorates, 13, 24
first Langley black females, 8, 36, 166
racial integration of women, 205
salary for Dorothy Vaughan, 21, 79
status of, 5, 143
women as, 74, 115, 143, 166
Mayer, John, 122, 164, 176, 177, 189, 190, 210
Mayo, Alton, 176, 177
McCarthy, Joseph, 102
McConnell, Dudley, 217
McGraw, Minnie (West Computer), 16, 39
men in computing, 205
Mercury Seven astronauts, 188. See also Project Mercury military service blacks fighting for freedom, 34–36
segregation, 31, 32, 104
Mimosa Crescent (Hampton, VA), 62, 132, 155, 185
missiles
Atlas, 189, 208, 213–214, 217–218, 221, 223
Pilotless Aircraft Research Division, 127
Project Mercury, 189, 208, 209, 213–214
Redstone, 189, 208–209
Soviet threat, 152, 301
spaceflight applications, 163–164
US capabilities, 162
Mission Control
Atlas rocket communication, 221
capsule communication, 206–207, 221
electronic computer alarms, 207
film crews, 217
heat shield of John Glenn, 224
no blacks, 241
“Mississippiitis,” 152
Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938), 24, 75
Moon shot
cost of space program, 240–241, 251–252
Kennedy challenge, 209
NASA Group Achievement Awards, 249
Project Gemini, 242
rendezvous, 218, 219, 248
Saturn rocket, 218, 239
television coverage, 235–237
“three nines” risk standard, 233–234
two vehicle time line, 233
See also Project Apollo; Project Mercury Morgan, Irene, 44–45, 168
Morgan v. Virginia (1946), 44–45
Moron, Alonzo G., 97, 203
Moton High School (VA). See Prince Edward County (VA) Moulton, Forest Ray, 176, 191
Mueller, Emily Stephens (scientist), 179–180
Mulcahy, Helen (East Computer), 198
Munk, Max, 53
Muroc. See Dryden High-Speed Flight Research Center (CA) Murray, Albert, 238
Murray v. Pearson (1936), 24
Mustangs. See P-51 Mustangs NAACP
Brown v. Board of Education, 140–141
bus segregation, 44–45
Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall, 70, 74–75, 140–141
Farmville founder Dorothy Vaughan, 19
graduate school desegregation, 24, 74–75
Joseph McCarthy target, 102
teacher salaries, 70, 75
top lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston, 24, 32, 70, 74–75
Virginia school integration, 169
NACA. See National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics NASA. See National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) accomplishments, 111
aircraft design, 3–4, 55–58
Area Rule, 110–111
charter of, 111, 275
employee badge, 37
engineering training by, 54–55
executive committee members, 53
fair employment officer, 104–105
integration progress, 167–168, 169–170
Korean War, 99
laminar flow airfoils, 55, 111
Langley Lab and, 2, 37, 209–210. See also Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory NASA name, 170–171, 183, 304
research report writers, xvii, 40, 85–86, 88, 290
research review process, 178, 305
Rosenberg trial repercussions, 101–102, 110
as space operations center, 170
supersonic flight, 84–85, 99–100. See also supersonic flight See also wind tunnels National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) black employees, xiv, 217–219, 227–228, 241–242
charter of, 171
cost of space program, 240–241, 251–252
deputy assistant administrator Ruth Bates Harris, xiii Federal Women’s Program Manager, 256–257
Langley Research Center as epicenter, 183
“math aides” for human computers, 190, 210
NACA into, 170–171, 183, 304
NASA Group Achievement Awards, 249
open house on first anniversary, 184
quickest route into space, 164, 187
Space Task Group, 183–184. See also Space Task Group Technical Assistant to Division Chief of Space Systems, 258
transparency of, 170–171, 217, 222
West Computing dissolved, 171–173, 204, 218–219
women engineer increase, 255
workforce reduction, 253
National Defense Education Act (1958), 158
National Technical Association, 197
“Negro” use in book, ix. See also black Americans Newport News (VA) East End segregation, 29–30, 61–63
John Glenn hero’s welcome, 225
racial tensions, 31
shipyard, 38, 120
V-J Day, 64–65
as war town, 27–29, 79–80
Newsome Park (Newport News, VA), 29, 61–63, 64, 66–67, 131–132, 241, 252
newspapers. See black newspapers Nichols, Nichelle, 242–243
“no-air” research, 58, 83, 112
Northrop Corp. engineer Virginia Tucker, 86–87
Obama, Barack, 250
“Old White,” 71. See also Greenbrier resort orbit requirements, 163. See also satellites Osgood, Catherine T. (math aide), 210
P for pursuit planes, 57
P-51 Mustangs, 51–52, 55, 57
Paine, Tom, 240
PARD. See Pilotless Aircraft Research Division Parks, Rosa, 168, 202
pay scales. See salaries Peake, Mary, 16
Pearson, Henry, 122, 125–126, 176–177, 191–192
Peddrew, Kathryn “Chubby” (West Computer), 49, 78, 132, 165, 167
Peddrew, Marjorie (West Computer), 78, 171, 204
Perl, William, 101–102
Perry, John, 227
Phenix High School (Hampton, VA), 94, 95, 142, 186
Phillips, John Mallory, 78
Phillips, W. H., 164
Pickford, Mary, 71
Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) rocketry, 127, 164
Space Task Group, 183–184. See also Space Task Group women scientists, 179–180
plane name designations, 57
Presidential Medal of Freedom, 172, 250
Prince Edward County (VA)
Altona Johns as teacher, 20, 33–34
Dorothy Vaughan as teacher, 10, 15, 19–20, 21, 92
Moton High School conditions, 19, 92, 140–141
schools closed, 203–204, 304, 309
Prohibition and Hampton (VA), 38
Project Apollo
Achievement Awards, 219, 249
Apollo 11 mission, 239–240, 244
Apollo 13 crisis, 248–249
cost, 240
end of, 252
fire and death, 233
lunar rendezvous, 248
Moon landing TV coverage, 235–237
Project Gemini, 242
“Project Greek Island,” 151–152
Project Mercury
astronaut selection, 188–189
ballistic to orbital, 190
capsule, 188, 201, 208, 213, 214, 221
concluding flight, 228
“dummy” four-orbit flight, 219, 222
electronic computers used, 205–206, 207
first American into space, 208–209
first orbital flight, 209, 213–217, 223–224
“fly-by-wire” controls, 216
goals of, 184
IBM 7090s vs. Katherine Johnson, xvii, 211, 216–217, 219–223
Kennedy moon challenge, 209
launch date slips, 207–208, 215
rockets, 189, 208, 209, 213–214
suborbital flight, 211
tracking stations, 206–207, 216, 217, 221, 258
trajectories, 189–191, 214, 215–217
Rainey, Gerald, 146
Rainey, Ruby (East Computer), 231
RAND Corporation satellite report, 161
Randolph, A. Philip
Communism denouncement, 103
Du Bois as guide, 229
Martin Luther King Jr. and, 6, 168, 228, 229
Negro war employment, 5–6
new generation, 168
Rauh, Joseph, 6
Redstone rocket, 189, 208–209
reentry
blunt body, 163, 188
heat shield of John Glenn, 223–224
retrofire output from Goddard, 222
self-education lecture series, 177
Sue Wilder research, 219
Reid, Henry
black women mathematicians, 46–47, 283
on bombing of Japan, 59
cafeteria glimpses of, 43
character of, 4, 46
correspondence with Orville Wright, 46, 283
Kathryn Peddrew for United Fund Drive, 167
spy warnings by, 52
research. See engineers Reynolds number for wind tunnels, 56
Ribner, Herbert, 112
Richie, Christine (West Computer), 105, 171
RIFs and RIGs (reductions in force and grade), 253
Robeson, Paul, 103
Robinson, Jackie, 140
Robinson, Spottswood, 140
rockets
Atlas, 189, 208, 213–214, 217–218, 221, 223
Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD), 127, 164
Project Mercury, 189, 208, 209, 213–214
Redstone, 189, 208–209
reusable, 163–164