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Apollo 11 Astronauts Research Paper

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“July 20, 1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin become the first humans to land on the moon” (203). During World War II, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory hired women, black and white, to act as computers and interpret data for major flight research projects. This was a big deal due to women’s past role in society which deemed them only capable of child bearing and being a good mother and wife. What made it an even bigger deal was that both African Americans and whites were working together to achieve the same goal. While these women have gone quite unnoticed, their work allowed the United States to send astronauts to the moon, along with contributing to prior successes such as breaking the sound barrier. It …show more content…

For instance, Dorothy worked the 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. shift, taking care of her family by day and crunching numbers at night” (66). Dorothy’s diligence and dedication to her job as a computer led to her becoming the section head of West Computing. This eventually allowed Dorothy to become more involved in computer programming conducted for projects such as the Mercury project which sent the first American into orbit. Mary Jackson was also recognized for outstanding work when her “new boss was so impressed with her work that he suggested she enroll in Langley’s engineer training program” (116). If Mary decided not to challenge herself and participate in the engineer training program, she would not have ended up making ground-breaking discoveries for NASA’s flight research division. Katherine Johnson also contributed greatly to early space discoveries because she always arrived “at the office early, went home in the late afternoon to check on her girls, and sometimes came back to work in the evening, maintaining a schedule of fourteen- or sixteen-hour days” (193). Katherine’s commitment to keeping astronauts safe and making almost all the calculations for Friendship 7 and Apollo 11’s flight paths, made her a valuable asset to NASA’s team. Overall, hard work allowed all three of these women to …show more content…

This love they shared was sometimes prioritized over friends and family. For example, “Dorothy loved staying home to take care of the new babies, but there was never a question that she would return to work as soon as possible” (65). Dorothy’s passion for her job, though a burden to her family and friends, allowed her to excel and contribute more to flight calculations. Likewise, “Mary decided to lend her trained eye and her understanding of aerodynamics to help her son, Levi, build a car to enter the Virginia Peninsula 1960 soap box derby” (153). Just like Mary used her creativity to help her son win the car derby, her strong interest in math helped her develop more ideas to make Supersonic airplanes more efficient. Lastly, “for Katherine, doing her job meant quietly sharing the joy when missions went well, as well as grieving with the others when missions failed” (191). The passion Katherine demonstrated towards NASA’s success inspired her to achieve aeronautic superiority. In addition to passion and dedication, resilience was a key factor in the women’s

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