Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-05-19
By BETTY BEALE

Americas rocket woman is
back in town from the White
Sands Proving Ground, N.
Mex, and once again ensconced
in the tanner confines Of her
office at the Naval Research
Laboratory.
Ash-blond, blue-eyed. 49,
year-old Eleanor Pressly Is
the only woman in the coun-
try deciding when and at what
angle a rocket will be fired.
There are numerous women
physicists working on the in
ternal scientific equipment the
Aerobee-Hi rocket carries
aloft. but Eleanor's the only
one whose tightening mathe-
NAUTICAL computations deter
mine whether or not the
rocket will be stable in flight.
If she figures it won't be, they
don't fire it.
II that sounds simple. just
imagine sending something
100 to 200 miles up into space
and, regardless Of the wind
currents 1t encounters, caus-
ing it to land in a given area.
The area allows for only 20
miles leeway on either side
since they launch the rockets
from the center Of the 40
mile wide proving ground.
When she blames herself
for q miss" afterwards, she
doesn't mean the rocket
landed outside the 40 mile
width. She means 1t didn't
land on the EXACT SPOT she
wanted it 10!
Referring to the tests this
spring at White Sands, she
said, mo. Al, the second
rocket we fired, was a blazing
success. We don't know yet
how high it went but we do
know that our instrumental
ton worked we'll"
No Trace Of Al
She also knows by mathe-
NAUTICAL computation where 1t
landed but nobody's seen 1t.
II looked for that thing by
helic0pter and we couldn't
find it." was the smiling COM
ment Of this 5 foot 5l7 inch
whiz at differential equations.
There's been a tremendous
amount of searching for it
since. Where could 1t be? Well.
sometimes they break In the
air and sometimes they bury
themselves in the ground with
out a trace. They figure Al
met the latter fate.
The cardplate outside her Of
fee reads Atmosphere and
Astrophysics Division, Rocket
Sonde Branch" On her desk
are such tones as Tables Of
Circular and Hyperbolic Tan
gents and Cotangents for RAJ
dian Arguments" and Hydro
Dynamics." The former was q
WPA project and Q good one.
she said.
Big rolls Of lined paper
stand wrapped UP or rolled out
on her desk and adjacent Ia
bic. On the outside Of each
are listed the things she has to
use to determine what hap
pened to the rocket: "Combus-
ton pressure, fuel line pres
sure. oxidizer line pressure.
base pressure. fuel now rate
and oxidizer flow rate"
Never Opened Book
II all this makes you think
Of the master student, the
bookworm who made good,
| you're on the wrong track.
I'm one Of the cases Of q kid
that never studied much" said
Miss Pressly. She never even
cracked her geometry book. BY
the time the other pupils had
their questions answered, she
had It.
After graduating from Er-
skine College. 9. c.. In 1888 ct
the age Of 10. she did pick up q
masters degree In math BY
studying summers ct Duke Uni
versity. The rest Of her math-
ematical and electronics in
formation. she insists, has been
acquired in her work.
After teaching high school
students and later Air Force
cadets math. she held q COM
putting job at Harvard for IL
months in connection with q
Government project Of devils
ing counter measures for en-
envy radar. At the end Of the
war. she came TO the Naval
Research Laboratory. The
Nays been firing rockets
since 1916 and she went to her
first firing in 1858.
Does she get excited at the
crucial moment? For q firing
it's awful" exclaimed the
rocket. woman. She gets SO