Saturn, 218, 239, 240
Scout solid-fuel, 219
Roddenberry, Gene, 243
Rogallo, Francis, 42
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 6, 9–10
Roosevelt, Franklin
airplane production boost, 3, 41
desegregation of defense industry, 6, 15–16, 32
“Four Freedoms,” 31
photos on civil service applications, 6–7
Rosenberg, Ethel and Julius, 101
Rosenberg trial repercussions, 101–102, 110
Rosenberg, Sam, 88
Roy, Melba (mathematician), 218, 255
Russia. See Soviet Union Rustin, Bayard, 228
salaries
computers, 5
laundry workers, 10
mathematicians, 21, 79, 121
teachers, 10–11, 17, 63, 70, 118, 121
Satchell, Lorraine (West Computer), 171, 204
satellites
Explorer I, 158, 162
International Geophysical Year, 162, 175
launch requirements, 163
Pilotless Aircraft Research Division, 127, 164
Rand report, 161
reusable launch vehicle, 163–164
Sputniks. See Sputniks Vanguard I, 158, 162
Saturn rocket, 218, 239, 240
Schirra, Wally, 188
Schy, Al, 131
scientists, women as, xvi, 179–180, 257, 305
Scott-Heron, Gil, 240
Scout solid-fuel rocket, 219
Seabass, Richard, 262
secrecy
at Langley, 52–53
Mary Winston Jackson clearance, 98
Rosenberg trial repercussions, 101–102
secretary of navy to Langley, 41–42
segregation
Anne Wythe Hall, 44
bathrooms at Langley, xv, 8, 43, 44, 48, 108, 129, 146–147, 169–170, 179
Bay Shore vs. Buckroe Beaches, 78, 93, 118
Brown v. Board of Education, 135, 140–141, 153–154, 157, 304
Brown vs. Virginia, 168–169, 184–186, 203–204, 304, 309
buses, 22, 30, 31, 36, 44–45, 69–70, 168, 202
cafeteria at Langley, 43–45, 48, 130, 146–147, 169
deeply rooted, 33, 103–104, 169, 185
East Area of Langley, 108
East End, 29–30, 61–62
federal defense industry, 6, 15–16, 32
federal employment, 33
foreigners to US, 103–104
fuzzy boundaries at Langley, 123–124, 169
Girl Scouts, 198, 256
graduate school programs, 24–25, 75
Hampton schools, xi, 142, 144–145
Holiday Inn bar, 146
hotels in south, 117
Housing Rights Act, 241
Jewish computer with Negro friend, 102
Langley Activities Building versus, 167–168
Little Rock, 150
men-only smokers, 83
military service, 31, 32, 104
“Mississippiitis,” 152
photos on civil service applications, 6–7, 33, 94
Poconos resorts, 238
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 157
USO clubs, 34
Virginia schools vs. Brown, 168–169, 184–186, 203–204, 304, 309
Virginia vs. West Virginia, 69–70
West Area of Langley, 7, 37, 43–45, 48, 104–105
West Computer as Colored Computer, 167
women on golf course, 255
Woolworth’s lunch counter, 201
Shepard, Alan, 188, 208–209
Shetterly, Aran, xi, 270–271
Simone, Nina, 156
Skopinski, Ted, 164, 176, 177, 189, 190, 191–192, 210, 211
Smart, JoAnne, 157
Smith, Benjamin Lee, 157
Smith, Eunice (West Computer), 120, 168, 171, 186, 204, 232
Smith, Willianna (West Computer), 264
The Souls of Black Folk (Du Bois), 33, 109
Soviet Union
as ally, 36
atomic capability, 98, 152, 301
first full day in space, 215
first human to orbit, 208, 209
International Geophysical Year, 162, 175
Jim Crow influencer, 170
Rosenberg spies, 101
Sputnik. See Sputniks as threat, 66, 98–99
women in engineering schools, 158
See also Cold War Space Act (1958), 171
Space Task Group (STG)
formation, 183–184, 188–189, 190, 191
Friendship 7 launch, 223
Mission Planning Analysis Division, 218, 220–221
move to Houston, 209, 210
“three nines” risk standard, 233–234
spaceflight
high-speed flight applied to, 163–164
Introduction to Outer Space, 175, 305
NACA to NASA, 170–171, 183
self-education lecture series, 176–177
See also Moon shot “Spacetown, USA,” xviii, 225, 273
Speegle, Katherine Cullie (scientist), 179–180
Sponsler, Blanche (East & West Computing) illness, 89–91
West Computing section assistant, 40, 81
West Computing section head, 88–89, 91
Sputniks
education and, 142, 158
launches of, 150–151, 158
NASA birth, 170–171, 183
Rand report, 161
rocket built in metal shop class, xiv
Soviet threat, 152, 158, 162
watching, 161, 162
Stability and Control Branch, 127
Stability Research Division, 58, 82–83, 87, 102, 112
Stack, John, 43, 82, 100
Collier Trophy, 99, 110, 111
Star Trek (TV series) Introduction to Outer Space, 305
Martin Luther King Jr. as Trekkie, 243
multiracial, mixed-gender crew, 242–244
Staton, Weldon, xiii
Stiles, Thelma (West Computer), 39, 42
Superfortress, 57, 59, 99
supersonic flight
Apollo capsule testing, 219
Chuck Yeager, 85, 99, 227
Collier Trophy, 99, 110
development, 84–85, 99–100
sonic booms, 100, 252, 261–262
spaceflight applications, 163–164
supersonic transport cancelled, 252
in transcontinental flight, 214
wind tunnel air flows, 110
Swigert, Jack, 248
Taft, Henry Waters, 72
“Tan Yanks,” 51. See also Tuskegee airmen Taylor, Ophelia (West Computer), 16, 94, 165
television
John Glenn launch audience, 223
Moon landing, 235–237
NASA transparency, 171, 217, 222
no black commentators, 241
Teller, Edward, 54
Test Pilot (movie; 1938), 53
test pilots
aircraft design, 4, 55, 57
Ann Baumgartner Carl, 55
astronaut selection, 188
chief Melvin Gough, 316
engineer trained as, 127
John Glenn, 214
supersonic Chuck Yeager, 85, 99
Theodorsen, Theodore, 53
Theoretical and Physical Research Division, 58
Thompson, Floyd, 171, 229, 230
Thompson, James, 34, 35–36
Tillman, Bettye, 157
Tingle, James, 90
Titov, Gherman, 215
Tracey, Spencer, 53
tracking stations
film crews, 217
Gloria Champine as secretary, 258
Project Mercury, 206–207, 216, 217, 221
trajectories
Azimuth Angle report, 192, 211, 220
ballistics trajectory tables, 189
check of Glenn orbital trajectory, 215–217, 219–223
Melba Roy programmer oversight, 218, 255
Project Mercury, 189–191, 207, 214
transonic region, 100, 110–111, 137–138
Truman, Harry S., 102, 104
Tucker, Virginia (head computer)
accomplishments, 86
alma mater, 157
engineer at Northrop, 86–87
girl search, 5, 86, 197
head computer, 5, 40, 86
Tuskegee airmen, 51–52, 104
Tynes, Erma (West Computer), 122, 130
Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, 111, 165
United Negro College Fund, 158
US Civil Service Commission. See civil service USO (United Service Organization) assistant director Katherine Goble, 120
secretary Mary Jackson, 95–96
as segregated, 34
Vaughan, Dorothy (mathematician)
apprentice mathematician, 59–60
background, 12–14
Camp Pickett laundry plant, 9, 10, 11–12, 15, 17, 21
childrearing, 79, 168, 172, 203
electronic computer programming, 205–206, 218–219
electronic computer training, 139, 141
engineering training, 54–55
family visits, 21, 61, 62, 63–64
Flight Research Division assignments, 57
Hampton mathematical jobs, 15–16, 17, 21
homeowner, 173
Howard University inaugural math master’s, 13, 23, 24, 73, 74
Katherine Goble Johnson on, 173, 250
Katherine Goble Johnson promotion, 125–126
Langley first day, 37, 39, 49
lodging at Lucy house, 29, 44
marriage effects, 22–23, 63–64, 77
Mathematician appointment, 21, 22, 25
Newport News arrival, 27, 29, 36
Newport News lease, 61–62, 66, 67–68, 77, 173
permanent employee, 81
retirement, 263–265
service award, 229
as teacher of math, 10, 14, 15, 19–20, 21, 92
textbook author, xvii
West Computing dissolved, 171–173, 204, 218–219
West Computing downsizing, 165–167
West Computing friendships, 49, 67–68, 78
West Computing section head, 91–92, 107, 121, 125–126, 165–167, 172, 173, 264
West Computing supervisor, 81, 89
Vaughan, Howard, 14, 22–23, 63–64, 77
Victory, John, 43, 100
V-J Day, 64–65
Von Braun, Wernher, 152, 189
voter registration, 202–203
Voting Rights Act (1965), 240
VV (Double V), 35–36