I picked up this book because I enjoyed reading about the women in Hidden Figues (Link to my post about that). However, Nathalia Holt’s Rise of the Rocket Girls: The women who Propelled Us, From Missles to the Moon to Mars focuses more on the technology they created than the lives and work they did. While I still found the book interesting it was not what I thought it would be. Holt (2016) includes some stories of the women’s lives outside the lab but these are overshadowed by the men at the lab, the events in the world, and the massive technological advances taking place.
Summary
Holt’s (2016) story is to focus, as the title states, on the Rocked Girls from the Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL) in California from its inception as a small club on Caltech campus to the modern era and its place in NASA. The book starts out not focusing on the women but the three men who founded the Lab and how they were daredevils, trying dangerous experiments. The first woman, Barby Canright, to join the team is there as a human computer alongside her husband.
The focus shifts to include two additional women as the lab expands into specifically rockets and missiles for the Army. These women, Maci Robers and Barbara Lewis, will play key roles throughout the lab's history for many years. Both train the next generation of “computers” in the skill necessary to survive at the lab and in the world. Maci is the supervisor to replace Barby when she leaves to raise a family, while Barbara is an intelligent woman who will remain at JPL even after starting a family.
In the next section, the 1950s, Barbra Lewis is joined by Janez Lawson, Helen Chow, and Susan Finley. This section focuses on JPLs interest in missiles and the shedding of its military aims and a move toward scientific exploration using rockets. Alongside these advances JPL has hired its first African American computer, Janez Lawson. However, Holt barley focuses on her and quickly moves on to the other women in the lab. Very little is mentioned about her struggles or how she was accepted in the lab by the engineers or other men there.
In the section on the 1960s the Space Race is in full swing and JPL will not be left behind, while the women are not calculating manned missions, they are a part of the excitement. Holt does a small shift and focuses on a few of the personal lives of the women, how they marry, have children, and also see divorces increase. Holt (2016) discusses the shift in society and the fact they are working long hours calculating trajectories for often shelved projects which lead to stress and tensions in their personal lives. In this section the women, Barbra, Helen, Susan, and Sylvia Lundy, are calculating how to reach the planets beyond the moon. They are also beginning to see the rise of new technology from IBM that may replace them one day but not yet it is still too unreliable. The successes and failures of the Lunar missions and trips to Venus and Mars are told in a whirlwind fashion often out of order because of the need to finish one story then tell the next as they are taking place at the same time.
Finally, Holt (2016) brings the story to the present. Holt (2016) shares how the work the women did in the early days of the lab laid the foundation for trips to the outer planets, the Hubble Telescope, space shuttles, and even the International space station. This final section sees the retirement of many of the women with only Sue Finley remaining until the end of her final mission.
Review
I found the book both interesting and disappointing. I was hoping to get to know the women, instead of just their work. Yes, Holt (2016) does share how they shaped the life of JPL and moved from merly computers to full engineers. However, this doesn’t help the feeling that they were still missing from much of the story. I read about the men just as much, if not more, in the text than the women who supported all of the missiles, rockets, and space craft launched from JPL. Holt’s (2016) style is perfect for history text but does shift in time quickly, leaving readers spinning in the whirlwind of activity that was the space race and rise of space exploration over missiles for military use. I did enjoy reading the book but readers must know that while this does focus on female computers and engineers it is very different from Hidden Figures in that it tells as much about the technology they help to develop and use as about them. Their personal lives are still mostly shrouded in mystery behind a few hints that they had troubled marriage or found contentment in their work. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Space Race and how man finally landed on Mars, and explore beyond through the simple means of gravity. Each of these plots was calculated by humans, many before smart computers existed, and some are still done taht way today.
References
Holt, N. 2016. Rise of the rocket girls: The women who propelled us, from missiles to the moon to Mars. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Cover Image: Photo by me
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