Galaxy Girls Read online

  There are some common themes that run through the stories in this book. The women, regardless of the period of history they were living in, refused to be limited by any barriers that society tried to place upon them, and they wouldn’t listen to anyone suggesting that they couldn’t or shouldn’t strive to fulfil their ambitions. They followed their passions, grabbed opportunities whenever they arose, stayed motivated, and always endeavored to do their very best. It wasn’t possible to include all of the amazing details of their lives in these pages, but I hope I am able to give you a taste of their remarkable achievements. I urge you to find out more about them, and indeed the many other people who have made human spaceflight possible. I promise you will be enthralled by their stories.

  Remember, find your passion in life, whatever it might be. Never lose sight of it and don’t be afraid to tell anyone what it is. Seek out opportunities and grab them wholeheartedly. Don’t shy away from making difficult decisions, and never be scared to ask. You can do anything you set your mind to. Above all, have fun and enjoy all you do, life is too short for anything else.

  When I left school, my principal wrote in everyone’s yearbook, “The sky’s the limit!,” but then she said, “I don’t think that’s true.” It’s the same for everyone. The whole universe is out there and it’s waiting for you.

  LIBBY JACKSON, August 2017

  The Origins of Space Travel

  → 1957

  Humans have always looked up at night and wondered what all the glimmering dots of light were and how they moved across the sky. As knowledge and science progressed, Nicolaus Copernicus realized in the 1500s that the Earth was not the center of the universe. A century or so later, Johannes Kepler and Sir Isaac Newton worked out how and why the planets move around the Sun, and started a scientific revolution. Technology developed to enable us to take to the sky in flying machines, and as is human nature, people wanted to fly higher and faster, setting their sights on reaching the stars.

  Émilie du Châtelet

  Ada Lovelace

  Jeannette Piccard

  Mary Sherman Morgan

  Jacqueline Cochran

  Émilie du Châtelet

  MATHEMATICIAN

  PHYSICIST

  FRANCE

  1706 → 1749

  TRANSLATING NEWTON’S GENIUS

  Émilie du Châtelet was born in Paris in an age when women were not allowed to visit public libraries, let alone think of going to university or studying subjects like science. But Émilie didn’t let this get in her way. Through sheer courage and willpower, she went on to share groundbreaking scientific theories with the world, theories that still help us to understand space today.

  When she was nineteen, Émilie was married to a grand marquis chosen by her parents. As a wife she was expected to stay at home, have children and tend to the household, but she made sure she also continued to study her great passions of math and physics, and her curiosity to learn soon had her escaping into town to explore the world about her. Once she even dressed as a man so that she could enter a café to meet with other scientists and mathematicians.

  Émilie met the great philosopher and historian Voltaire, who introduced her to the books of the great British scientist Sir Isaac Newton. Newton had made numerous significant discoveries, and in his most important book, Principia Mathematica, laid down the fundamental laws of physics. He explained the world around us, including how gravity works, and how objects in space orbit the Earth. Newton’s theories remained controversial at the time, and were extremely complex, but Émilie refused to be daunted, and spent years studying them.

  She was in the middle of writing a translation of Principia Mathematica so that the whole of France—and not just the educated men—could understand these radical ideas, when she discovered she was pregnant. Émilie was forty-two and, despite having given birth three times already, feared she might not survive childbirth at such an age. But as always, she showed a powerful determination, working all the hours she could to complete the book just a few days before her daughter Stanislas-Adélaïde was born. Émilie survived the birth, but tragically died six days later. Her great work wasn’t published for another decade, but when it was, it contributed to a scientific revolution across Europe, and to this day remains the most widely read version of Newton’s book in French.

  Émilie’s heroic efforts laid the foundations of science and space for generations. But she also showed women of her own day what was possible. Knowledge wasn’t just for men—in her career she read, wrote books and gained international fame for her mighty mind.

  “Let us be certain of what we want to be; let us choose for ourselves our own path in life.”

  Ada Lovelace

  MATHEMATICIAN

  UNITED KINGDOM

  1815 → 1852

  THE FIRST PUBLISHED COMPUTER PROGRAMMER

  Ada Lovelace adored machines. When she was twelve years old, she sketched out ideas for a steam-powered flying machine that would soar through the air. Her colorful imagination and fascination with science would go on to make this young dreamer famous throughout the world.

  Ada was fortunate. Although she was born at a time when it was very unusual for girls to study math, her mother had been taught math and insisted that her daughter was too. Ada was extremely talented and enjoyed studying languages as well as science, which would prove to be very useful.

  When she was seventeen, she met Charles Babbage, a pioneer of “thinking machines.” Babbage had invented an amazing machine called the Difference Engine, which was designed to fill an entire room. Today, we would think of it as a huge mechanical calculator. He then had an idea for an even more complex machine, called the Analytical Engine, which could perform more complicated calculations. Ada was captivated by Babbage’s work and when an Italian engineer wrote a paper about this new machine, she translated it into English. She was so fascinated by it that she added her own thoughts as well. In fact, she had so many ideas that the English version ended up being nearly three times as long as the original.

  Ada published her work in 1843—under the initials AAL so that people would not know she was a woman and therefore think less of it—and so became the first published computer programmer. Her fizzing imagination saw the incredible potential of the machine, suggesting that it could manipulate symbols and music. Ada saw that it could also do many of the things a modern computer can and she was the first person to write out complete instructions for it. However, Babbage’s great machine was never built and Ada’s work was soon forgotten. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the first person to build a programmable computer, Alan Turing, came across it and recognized its brilliance.

  As the computing age dawned, people finally saw what a great and pioneering mind Ada had possessed, and in the 1980s a new computer language, Ada, was named after her in recognition of her work. This is still in use today, not least on some of the International Space Station’s many computers.

  Ada’s sheer brilliance is now celebrated every year, on Ada Lovelace Day, when people all around the world mark the achievements of Ada and all of the women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). She will never be forgotten again.

  “Your best and wisest refuge from all troubles is in your science.”

  Jeannette Piccard

  HIGH-ALTITUDE BALLOONIST

  SCIENTIST

  USA

  1895 → 1981

  THE FIRST WOMAN IN THE STRATOSPHERE

  In the early days of flight, as the world wondered what might lie beyond the clouds, explorers flew as high as they could in balloons that were lighter than air. Jeannette Piccard and her husband, Jean, were passionate about science and learning. Jean wanted to study the cosmic rays in the higher levels of the atmosphere, and in order to reach these dizzying heights, he needed to be flown in a stratospheric balloon. Jeannette rose to the challenge and became the first woman to get a balloon license, flying with great skill so that Jean could carry out important scientific obser
vations.

  Their record-breaking flight took place on October 23, 1934. More than six hundred people helped to release the ropes holding down their enormous hydrogen-filled balloon, and fourty-five thousand people watched them soar off into the atmosphere. Along with the Geiger counters for detecting radiation, and other scientific equipment, the Piccards took their pet turtle, Fleur de Lys, for the ride. Jeannette was completely in control of flying the balloon and piloted it for eight hours, traveling almost 311 miles. They reached an incredible altitude of 10.9 miles above the Earth’s surface—higher than any woman had traveled before.

  Some people have called Jeannette the first woman in space as she traveled so high, but the definition of where space begins is at an imaginary point called the Karman line, 62 miles above the surface of the Earth. At about this height, it becomes impossible for airplanes to fly because the atmosphere is too thin. However, the Karman line is not where Earth’s atmosphere stops and space begins—it actually carries on getting thinner and thinner the farther up you go. The top layer of the atmosphere, called the exosphere, extends to about 6,214 miles above the surface of the Earth.

  Jeannette and Jean’s flight did not go entirely to plan. Jeannette had to change the flight path due to bad weather conditions, which meant that they did not gather all the scientific data they had hoped for. She also had to land in trees, tearing the balloon beyond repair and causing the gondola to fall the last few feet. She later said, “What a mess! I wanted to land on the White House lawn.” Nevertheless, Jeannette’s achievements were still monumental and her record for flying higher than any woman had before would not be broken for nearly thirty years, when humans finally made it into space.

  “Like the hundreds of thousands of men and women . . . working in the space program, one gets a very rewarding feeling to realize that you have helped give history a little nudge forward towards the wonders of the future.”

  Mary Sherman Morgan

  ROCKET SCIENTIST

  CHEMIST

  USA

  1921 → 2004

  HER ROCKET FUEL LAUNCHED AMERICA’S FIRST SATELLITE

  Mary Sherman Morgan was a rocket scientist who worked on a space program so secret that information about her has been in danger of being lost to time.

  Mary grew up on a farm in North Dakota, and didn’t start school until she was eight as her parents were reluctant to lose her valuable help with the land and animals. But she loved learning so much she ran away from home to attend university.

  At university during the Second World War, her brilliance at chemistry meant she was offered a job with top-secret clearance. Although it meant she had to leave university before she had finished her studies, Mary decided to do her part for the war effort and accepted, not knowing what the job entailed. On her first day, she discovered it was at one of the world’s largest makers of explosives for the US military.

  At the end of the war, the United States and the Soviet Union both started using the knowledge they had learned from weapons to develop space rockets. The Soviet Union took the first big prize when they launched the first-ever satellite, called Sputnik, which was not much bigger than a beachball, but the United States now found themselves behind in the race. The American team, led by Wernher von Braun, developed a rocket to launch their own satellite, but it wasn’t powerful enough to make it all the way into space. The only way to solve the problem was to fill it with better rocket fuel, but none existed.

  Mary’s skills had been snapped up by a company called North American Aviation (NAA). Out of its nine hundred engineers she was the only woman, but she did not let that faze her and soon became the company star, designing new fuels and explosives. When the American space team asked NAA for their best man to develop a powerful rocket fuel, they were told it was Mary. They were incredulous—somebody with no university degree, and worse still, a woman—how could she possibly be up to the job? But Mary’s bosses insisted she was the best.

  Sure enough, she soon had the answer: a new mix of propellant she called Hydyne. The fuel was carefully transported to Cape Canaveral, Florida, and loaded into the rocket which on January 31, 1958, took Explorer 1 into space. The United States was finally in the space race. Mary, America’s first female rocket scientist, had saved their early space program.

  Mary retired a few years later, and was given a hero’s send-off. As she looked around the room, she was proud to see other female engineers in the crowd, following in her footsteps.

  “Please, Daddy—I want to go to school.”

  Jacqueline Cochran

  PILOT

  ENTREPRENEUR

  USA

  1906 → 1980

  FIRST WOMAN TO BREAK THE SOUND BARRIER

  Jacqueline Cochran loved clothes and makeup, and dreamed of a glamorous lifestyle. She moved to New York to make her fortune, where her colorful and commanding personality soon saw her as a stylist in a hairdressing salon in Saks Fifth Avenue. She made many friends and married successful businessman Floyd Odlum, who suggested that Jackie should learn to fly. As soon as Jackie was in the air, she knew it was her home and wondered why she had waited so long. She was a natural—just three weeks later she had her pilot’s license and was soon entering competitions.

  Jackie was the first woman to enter the famous Bendix race across America, and in 1938 she won it. Early female pilots were constantly told they could not handle fast planes but Jackie was undeterred and set records for flying higher, faster and farther than anyone else. At the end of every flight she would do her makeup before emerging from the cockpit looking effortlessly glamorous.

  As aviation evolved, planes flew at greater speeds and distances, but it was not known if an airplane, or indeed humans, would be able to travel faster than the speed of sound and break the sound barrier. Some thought the turbulence and air pressure would cause a plane to break up.

  The US military developed the Bell X-1, a rocket-powered test plane. It didn’t fly like a normal plane, but was dropped from underneath a heavy bomber, fired its rocket engines to accelerate and then glided back to land. Chuck Yeager flew it to become the first person ever to break the sound barrier.

  Jackie, determined to set as many records as she could, set her eyes on the prize and sought out Yeager for advice. In 1953 she became the first woman to break the sound barrier—at over 650 mph in an F-86 Sabre jet borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force.

  Jackie was a hugely successful and accomplished pilot. During the Second World War, inspired by efforts in Great Britain, she campaigned to give female pilots a role, and was the director of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). Her successful cosmetics company rivaled established names like Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden. Jackie’s resolve and ambition saw her push herself to break as many barriers as possible, setting numerous records and leaving a lasting legacy.

  “I might have been born in a hovel, but I am determined to travel with the wind and the stars.”

  The Dawn of the Space Age

  1957 → 1972

  The space age started as a race. The United States and the Soviet Union, both using technology developed in Germany during the Second World War, wanted to prove they were the most powerful country in the world by conquering space. The Soviet Union made history on October 4, 1957, when Sputnik, the first satellite, orbited the Earth. It emitted a radio signal with a “beep beep” that could be heard by anyone in the world who tuned in. When the Soviets put the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961, the United States responded by throwing down the gauntlet—the goal of putting a human on the surface of the Moon before the end of the decade and returning them safely to Earth.

  Valentina Tereshkova

  Jerrie Cobb

  The Mercury 7 Wives

  Eilene Galloway

  Mary Jackson

  Dee O’Hara

  Katherine Johnson

  Margaret Hamilton

  The Waltham “Little Old Ladies”

  Poppy Northcuttr />
  Rita Rapp

  Dottie Lee

  The ILC Seamstresses

  Valentina Tereshkova

  PARACHUTIST

  COSMONAUT

  RUSSIA

  BORN 1937 →

  FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE

  Valentina Tereshkova wanted to be a train driver. She saw them on their way into Moscow and thought it was the best job in the world. What she actually went on to do was the best job out of this world.

  The early days of human spaceflight were a competition between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had put the first person in space, a man named Yuri Gagarin, and now they wanted to put the first woman there. The spacecraft they had built could not land softly back on Earth, so anyone flying in it had to fire an ejector seat at 4.35 miles above the surface and parachute down.

  As a young girl Valentina was desperate for adventure and had joined a parachuting club, where she quickly excelled. When the authorities were looking for talented women to become cosmonauts and fly their spacecraft, Valentina was selected.

  The mission program was carried out in secret and she couldn’t even tell her mother about it. Instead, she told her she was training for the National Parachuting Team, and wrote letters home making up all sorts of stories.

  Valentina blasted into space on a momentous day in June 1963 and spent three days orbiting the Earth. When she was launched, her mother, Elena, still had no idea that her daughter was a cosmonaut. It was not until Elena’s neighbors rushed over and she saw the images of Valentina on television that she realized her daughter was the first woman in space.