Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's First Female Rocket Scientist

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I remember, at three years old, watching Apollo 15 and seeing the astronauts drive on a non-terrestrial body for the first time. I didn’t know their names at the time, but I sensed the importance of the moment and the specialness of these people. I confidently announced that I was going to be an astronaut and go into space. My parents didn’t laugh. My mother didn’t tell me I should think about being a teacher or a nurse or a secretary instead. My engineer father never doubted that I could follow in his footsteps, nor saw any reason why I shouldn’t. They just said “Okay.” I have had that sort of support and encouragement throughout my life—from my parents, my teachers, my mentors, and my friends. I majored in physics at a technical college and completed a PhD in robotics. Today, though not an astronaut, I have gone into space as an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

But this world of open doors in which I was raised is not the world Mary Sherman Morgan faced. In that world, women were not considered capable of technical work. The world that I took for granted was born slowly and painfully through the perseverance, dedication, and mostly unknown efforts of exceptional women like Mary. The growing pains began in earnest during World War II. Technological and scientific advancement was essential for Western survival, but men who would otherwise hold these jobs were suddenly overseas. The vacuum was filled by those left behind—women like Mary, who insisted on taking every science class in school despite all objections. For the first time, women were given opportunities to apply these skills to something other than teaching, even if, like Mary, they didn’t have advanced education. And the country had a vested interest in their success.

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