Rise of the Rocket Girls

January 15, 2016
The history of women as vital contributors to advancements in early space exploration. In this engaging history and group biography, science journalist Holt (Cured: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science, 2014) reveals the significance of the young women mathematicians who staffed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Beginning in the 1940s, women who had been the only females in college mathematics and chemistry classes found themselves part of an eager team of scientists and engineers whose first project was to produce "a new weapon, a long-range jet-propelled missile that could carry a thousand-pound warhead for a hundred miles at a speed capable of eluding an enemy fighter aircraft." Drawing on interviews with surviving team members, Holt traces the frustrations, failures, and successes of rocket development before computers came on the scene. Working with pencils, graph paper, and notebooks, it took one woman a day to calculate a single rocket's trajectory, plotting the path in a hand-drawn picture. Sometimes they used a Friden calculator, a heavy, unwieldy mechanism that vibrated noisily. When the IBM 704 computer--weighing more than 30,000 pounds and costing $2 million--arrived in the late 1950s, the JPL staff was suspicious. "The engineers and computers preferred to do their calculations by hand," writes the author, "not trusting the massive machines that had too many glitches to be trustworthy." After Russia sent Sputnik into space, the JPL pressed for funds to develop a satellite, frustrated that Eisenhower's administration "worried that the space race might turn into the space war." They were jubilant when they were finally able to work on unmanned missions. Besides chronicling the development of America's space program, Holt recounts the women's private lives--marriages, babies, and the challenge of combining motherhood and work--gleaned from her interviewees' vivid memories. A fresh contribution to women's history.

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Starred review from March 15, 2016

In her latest offering, Holt (Cured: The People Who Defeated HIV) turns her attention to the women who served as "human computers"--people who computed data--for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), focusing on the laboratory's inception in the 1940s through the 1960s. These women did not occupy the usual positions open to females at the time (secretaries, nurses, or teachers) but instead worked alongside engineers to calculate trajectories, identify how rocket fuel could make missiles fly, and analyze vast experimental data. The book discusses JPL's evolution from an army-funded missile lab to its place in the NASA space program, and how each stage in the transition affected the lives and work of the individuals who would later become computer programmers and engineers themselves. Holt focuses on key figures in the JPL computing department, offering a personalized look at these unconventional women and their roles in launching humanity skyward. VERDICT Holt seamlessly blends the technical aspects of rocket science and mathematics with an engaging narrative, making for an imminently readable and well-researched work. Highly recommended to readers with an interest in the U.S. space program, women's history, and 20th-century history. [See "Editors' Spring Picks," LJ 2/15/16, p. 28.]--Crystal Goldman, Univ. of California, San Diego Lib.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2016

We take so much for granted now, but in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, women who wanted a career other than homemaker were mostly limited to becoming teachers, nurses, or secretaries, and there was no such thing as maternity leave. However, a few smart young women who loved math were hired to be human computers for the Jet Propulsion Lab in California. What we think of as computers now hadn't been invented yet. These women spent their days writing equations and computing numbers with pencils, paper, and slide rules to give the male engineers the information they needed to build rockets, satellites, and space shuttles. This selection will surprise and thrill teens not only because it honors the crucial work of these female scientists but also because it shows their individual humanity-their favorite fashions, their personal relationships-within the broader context of the international space race, changes in U.S. society brought about by feminism and integration, and transformations in American daily life brought about by evolving technology. Teen book clubs will enjoy discussing the pros and cons of all-female work groups, the costs and benefits of space exploration, and more. Readers will want to search online for information about the Juno probe, mentioned in the "1970s-Today" section as orbiting Jupiter in July 2016. The extensive notes section details the many first-person interviews conducted by the author, plus the archival materials she used. VERDICT An engaging, inspiring offering that will appeal to fans of history, science, and feminism.-Hope Baugh, Carmel Clay Public Library, Carmel, IN

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2016
Wow! Talk about forgotten history! Holt (Cured: The People Who Defeated HIV, 2014), tackles the lost story of women at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, giving readers not only an inside look at how it came to have the highest percentage of female employees in NASA but also how JPL itself was formed and how its revolutionary projects (Voyager, Mars rovers) were developed. Those interested in space history will find much to enjoy here, but it is the stories of the women involved, highlighted in sections by decade, that commands attention. Their role as computersindividuals capable of making blazingly fast calculations of the highest mathwas critical to JPL's success, and their department became a bastion for women in the workplace. The computers worked long hours, married, had children, left to raise families, and often returned out of longing for the achievements possible at JPL. Holt interviewed many of them and mined existing histories for insights, and her stellar research is evident on every page. This is an excellent contribution to American history, valuable not only for what it reveals about the space program and gender equality but even more as great reading. Book clubs will be lining up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)