Innovation & Tech Today – May 2019

64 INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | SUMMER 2019

tech
zone NASA

Poppy Northcutt’s Wild Lunar Ride

A young Texas mathematical whiz figured out lunar orbital trajectories — and became the

first woman to work in Mission Control. Her mission? Apollo

Interview By Beth Covington

Poppy Northcutt understands what all the fuss

is about — and loves every minute of it. Finally,

five decades after her precise calculations

enabled nine teams of Apollo astronauts to orbit

the moon and return safely to earth (six teams

walked; three worked in orbit), her huge role in

mankind’s greatest voyage to date is chronicled

in chronicled in Apollo: Missions to the Moon, on

the NatGeo Channel in July.

In a decade that has brought out the huge roles

women played in our space program,

highlighted by the movie Hidden Figures and the

first episode of the CNN series 1969 , Poppy has

become a minor celebrity. While the

computresses in Hidden Figures actually started

in the mid-1940s (the movie focuses on the late

1950s and early 1960s), Poppy went to work for

TRW in 1965. Soon, the mathematical and

engineering whiz had a new assignment: the

fledgling Apollo program.

“I, of course, was aware of computresses at

NASA, but I worked in a different capacity. I

was on the (Apollo) project from the beginning,

to develop a return-to-earth capacity, to figure

out the trajectory maneuvers to get a spacecraft

from the moon to earth with three astronauts

aboard,” she said.

In Apollo, director Tom Jennings became the

perfect person to present Polly’s story, since

Apollo 8 —highlighted by the immortal

Christmas Eve 1968 live telecast from lunar

orbit — is also Jennings’ favorite childhood

memory. “Her story is not only important

because of what she did — helped figure out

how to get us back from the moon — but

because of the legacy. Every girl and young

woman entering aerospace, or any STEM

program, can watch this movie and see who one

of the true godmothers of STEM-in-action is.

Polly will never say that, but that’s the case. It’s

also the case that she’s one of the unsung heroes

of our space program.”

Currently the Texas chapter president of the

National Organization for Women, Poppy still

cuts a tall, stately swath through any room she

enters. Her brilliant mind and sharp-tongued

wit speak of a woman who held her own in the

formerly men’s-only environment of Mission

Control, but also one so committed to getting

men to the moon and back home that she

routinely worked 80 to 100-hour weeks — as

did everyone in the 1960s and early 1970s.

“I would do simulations before 8 a.m., then go

across the street for 4 to 6 hours a day, as we

were still de-bugging the program. Then work

some more on it. We’d already blown through

several ‘mission kill’ deadlines, things that would

stop a program dead today. Then, it was like,

‘We’re flying 8. By God, we’re getting up there.’

(Above) Poppy Northcutt with Apollo: Missions to the Moon director Tom Jennings. (Right) Poppy Northcutt, a mathematician at the Houston Operations of TRW's

Systems Group, staffs a console in NASA's Mission Control Center-Houston and is responsible for computing maneuvers which would bring the Apollo spacecraft home

from the Moon. Poppy was on duty in the Control Center when Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 launched out of lunar orbit for their return to the Earth. Photo Alamy.com

Photo: Robert Yehling