Showing results for "Astronomy" in Women

"Houston, We have a problem"! During the Apollo 11 moon landing, as many as 400,000 people had jobs that were essential to the successful mission. Learn about aeronautics and the different jobs in the field that helped man take the first steps on the moon and expand our understanding of the solar system. Who was one of the first women to work at NASA and what role did she have?

Sunita Williams' story is one of having to settle for second choices. She grew up wishing to become a professional swimmer. Then she wanted to train as a vet. Instead she went on to join the Naval Academy and serve as a pilot. Before long, however, space was calling. A new dream had been born in...

As a child, Nancy Grace Roman moved from home to home. The only constant? The nighttime sky. She loved the stars and knew from a young age that she wanted to become an astronomer. But could she, during a time when many women weren’t even allowed into colleges? Nancy Grace found a way to overcome each barrier placed before her. Her persistence paid off when she was named the first female executive as Chief of Astronomy at the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA in 1959. It was here she faced her biggest challenge to date

Vera Rubin was one of the astronomers who discovered and named dark matter, the thing that keeps the universe hanging together. Throughout her career she was never taken seriously as a scientist because she was one of the only female astronomers at that time, but she didn’t let that stop her. She made groundbreaking and incredibly significant discoveries that scientists have only recently been able to really appreciate—and she changed the way that we look at the universe.