Frances "Poppy" Northcutt was one of the "computer ladies" working at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston during the Apollo program.
History[]
On the morning of June 27, 1969, the day after the Soviet Moon landing, Poppy was working at the MSC and was greeted by Margo Madison who had just left her room.[1]
Notes[]
The character remained uncredited and was just seen for a second, passing and greeting Margo.
Behind the scenes[]
In reality, Frances "Poppy" Northcutt was the first female engineer working in NASA's Mission Control. Different from the show, where Margo Madison became the first woman in Mission Control in summer 1969, Poppy started working there in 1968 during Apollo 8 already. Northcutt was hired in 1965 by aerospace contractor TRW as a computress, but was promoted to technical staff after 6 month, the first woman ever in that position. The pay gap between these two positions was so large that the company did not have mechanisms in place for this. This experience inspired Northcutt for her later career as an attorney specialized in women's rights.
Northcutt continued working with NASA for several more years and was part of the team to find solutions to bring the astronauts of Apollo 13 home savely, for which the whole mission operation team was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom team award by President Nixon in April 1970.
Frances Nothcutt is 82 years old today. In 2019 she gave an interview about her Apollo work.[2] In December 2023 it was announced, that the Asteroid (355657) (2008 EA89) was named "Poppy" in her honor.[3] [4]
Gallery[]
Images[]
_(colored).jpg "Frances Poppy Northcutt 1968 (OTL) (colored).jpg (1.29 MB)")
_1.jpg "Frances Poppy Northcutt (OTL) 1.jpg (1.26 MB)")
_2.jpg "Frances Poppy Northcutt (OTL) 2.jpg (74 KB)")
_3.jpg "Frances Poppy Northcutt (OTL) 3.jpg (131 KB)")
.jpg "Frances Poppy Northcutt 2019 (OTL).jpg (822 KB)")
Videos[]
L.A. Times - 03:37
Shatner Method - 04:37
See also[]
External links[]
Poppy Northcutt on Wikipedia
References
- ↑ For All Mankind TV series, season 1, episode 1, "Red Moon"
- ↑ planetary.org: Apollo 11 and the Woman Who Helped Get It Home(archived 2023-12-03)
- ↑ minorplanetcenter.net: IAU Minor Planet Center(archived 2024-05-05)
- ↑ ssd.jpl.nasa.gov: Small-Body Database Lookup: 355657 Poppy(archived 2024-05-03)
