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Nathalia Holt

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars Hardcover – April 5, 2016

by Nathalia Holt (Author)

363 customer reviews

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"If Hidden Figures has you itching to learn more about the women who worked in the space program, pick up Nathalia Holt's lively, immensely readable history, Rise of the Rocket Girls." --Entertainment Weekly

The riveting true story of the women who launched America into space.

In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible.

For the first time, Rise of the Rocket Girls tells the stories of these women--known as "human computers"--who broke the boundaries of both gender and science. Based on extensive research and interviews with all the living members of the team, Rise of the Rocket Girls offers a unique perspective on the role of women in science: both where we've been, and the far reaches of space to which we're heading.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of April 2016: Women's history buffs rejoice! Wonderfully told and intrinsically captivating, this is the story about the elite group of women in the 40s and 50s who broke gender and science boundaries to transform rocket design and lay the groundwork for U.S. space travel. Not only did I geek out on the incredible look into the early days of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but I also fell in love with these women who quite possibly invented the pant suit, and were vital to America's space travel. --Penny Mann

From School Library Journal

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

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Product details

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (April 5, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780316338929
ISBN-13: 978-0316338929
ASIN: 0316338923
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 363 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Aerospace > Propulsion Technology
- #31 in Books > Science & Math > Astronomy & Space Science > Mars
- #74 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > History

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Lynne Spreen

Girls Who Code - the Women Who Built America's Space Program

April 30, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

While the STEM debate rages, Rise of the Rocket Girls shatters the American stereotype that girls can't do numbers. Rocket Girls tells the story of California's JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) from the early days (1940s) when the main goal was to strap a rocket onto a plane to make it go faster, to the present time of space exploration. In 1940, when the guys were shooting rockets out of a dry canyon in southern California, one of them just happened to be married to a girl who was good with numbers. Barbara calculated speed, trajectory, combustion, and other factors for rocket and propellant development, and she set the tone for future projects.

As the work grew, and young JPL expanded, the number of women "computers" (they computed! The term predates the machines) grew. The woman who was in charge of the "computers," Macie Roberts, hired only women for the department, because she wanted to preserve the camaraderie and team spirit so essential to this critical work. Thus, in a benevolent form of gender discrimination, JPL developed a sterling team of brilliant women. Macie often reminded the women, "In this job you need to look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, and work like a dog."

As we learn about the development of rocketry, the author, Nathalia Holt, weaves in cultural developments, such as the invention of pantyhose and the rise of the women's liberation movement. She also includes snippets from the women's personal lives (like the fact that pregnancy meant instant termination--until the program realized it was dead without the women computers, and adapted flexibility to accommodate them).

The women went from pencils and notebook paper to making history. Their calculations put the first man on the moon. Their formulas became code, and they became the first computer programmers. As Holt says, "You can write a lot of programs in five decades. The code that (the women) wrote would continue to work its way into spacecraft, navigation systems, climate studies, and Mars rovers. It would get spliced up and repurposed, pasted into different missions, sent out into space, driven on far-off planets...to (currently orbiting Mars and Saturn spacecraft)...to future Earth-orbiting instruments designed to study our own world."

If you are one of those who believes females aren't geared toward math and science, you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to read this engaging, compelling book. It will tell you of a time when women, using only their minds and pencils, rendered the complex calculations that allowed the United States of America to have a space program at all.

91 people found this helpful

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Katie Amazon Customer

Rocket Girl

October 27, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

As a former 'Rocket Girl' (General Dynamics/Convair Launch Vehicle Engineering), I found this book fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable. By degree a mechanical engineer, I wrote and ran computer code (on punch cards) to determine heat loads on the rockets and their payloads. I remember the engineering challenges of correctly modeling laminar and turbulent air flows over payload cover structures and how much I enjoyed the work. It was a short career - I was tempted away by a High Temperature Gas Cooled Nuclear Reactor - but my most vivid memories will always be my first job out of college on the Atlas (work horse of the century) and Centaur launch vehicles.

96 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

The story of the women "computers' who did all of the mathematical computations for JPL while we were putting a man on the moon

July 9, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I thought I knew a lot about our space program. But this book, told from the viewpoint of women I never knew existed, added significantly to what I knew of the early days of our space program. The story of the women "computers' who did all of the mathematical computations for JPL while we were putting a man on the moon is a wonderful tribute to the technical skill of women, a frequently overlooked resource.

I highly recommend this to anyone interested in our space program.

I also highly recommend it to anyone who has any doubts of a woman's ability to succeed in a Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) field.

13 people found this helpful

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Tina T-P

A TEN STAR BOOK

September 26, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I would give it 10 stars if I could. This is a FANTASTIC book - Very readable and enjoyable - I have no doubt if it were not for these ladies, we'd still be thinking the world was flat! Anyone with a student in a STEM program should get this book for them - to realize that there was life before "electronic computers". I have purchased copies for family and recommended it to bunches of people. You will be astonished when you read it, then you'll want to read it again.

12 people found this helpful

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Sally Jones

An inspiring story about the women who blazed a trail for those who came after them!

April 18, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book was so much fun to read. Yes, it was probably most interesting to geeks like me. The author touched on the physics and math, enough to keep people who understand such things interested, but I don't think it had too much detail for people without that background. I started work in the early 1970s when things had begun to change. And yet, the only job I could find was as a computer programmer, not as a physicist. And when I got my second job, the manager who interviewed me actually asked me if my husband had tenure. I felt that talking about their family lives was crucial to the story - they were leaders in the changes so women could work after they were married and/or had children.

39 people found this helpful

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Daniel Ethier

The women at the core of space exploration

April 25, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoy reading histories of the space program. This book covers the history of JPL from the very beginning, told through the lives of the computers, women who did the serious mathematics needed to compute trajectories, model rocket thrust, etc. These women were at the center of everything from the first successful U.S. satellite to all the space probes to the moon, Venus, Mars, and the Voyagers. But this is also a story about women's experience in the 1940s through the 1970s. When one of the computers became pregnant, there was no maternity leave back then. They just had to quit. Some returned. Daycare was getting your mother or a neighbor to watch your child.

Just an amazing story about some amazingly talented women who did amazing things.

10 people found this helpful

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