Rocket Girl
Subtitle: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's First Female Rocket Scientist
By: George D. Morgan
Publisher: Prometheus Books; Prometheus
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 325
ISBN-13: 9781616147396; 9781616147402
Subjects: Rocketry; SCIENCE; Science & Technology; General; Women scientists; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY; Chemistry; Biography; History
Description: "Blending a fascinating personal history with dramatic historical events, this book brings long-overdue attention to a brilliant woman whose work proved essential for America's early space program. This is the extraordinary true story of America's first female rocket scientist. Told by her son, it describes Mary Sherman Morgan's crucial contribution to launching America's first satellite and the author's labyrinthine journey to uncover his mother's lost legacy--one buried deep under a lifetime of secrets political, technological, and personal. In 1938, a young German rocket enthusiast named Wernher von Braun had dreams of building a rocket that could fly him to the moon. In Ray, North Dakota, a young farm girl named Mary Sherman was attending high school. In an age when girls rarely dreamed of a career in science, Mary wanted to be a chemist. A decade later the dreams of these two disparate individuals would coalesce in ways neither could have imagined. World War II and the Cold War space race with the Russians changed the fates of both von Braun and Mary Sherman Morgan. When von Braun and other top engineers could not find a solution to the repeated failures that plagued the nascent US rocket program, North American Aviation, where Sherman Morgan then worked, was given the challenge. Recognizing her talent for chemistry, company management turned the assignment over to young Mary. In the end, America succeeded in launching rockets into space, but only because of the joint efforts of the brilliant farm girl from North Dakota and the famous German scientist. While von Braun went on to become a high-profile figure in NASA's manned space flight, Mary Sherman Morgan and her contributions fell into obscurity--until now."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword  -- Ashley Stroupe -- Chapter 1.; title: This Is a Story -- -- Chapter 2.; title: Prairie Girl -- -- Chapter 3.; title: The Raketenflugplatz -- -- Chapter 4.; title: The ABC's of Milking Cows -- -- Chapter 5.; title: I Have No Idea What You're Talking About -- -- Chapter 6.; title: "Mother Does Not Abide Photography" -- -- Chapter 7.; title: The Great Escape -- -- Chapter 8.; title: A Little of This, a Little of That -- -- Chapter 9.; title: An Odd Number -- -- Chapter 10.; title: Hidden Fortress -- -- Chapter 11.; title: A New Kind of War -- -- Chapter 12.; title: Whitewashed in White Sands -- -- Chapter 13.; title: Alias Chief Designer -- -- Chapter 14.; title: Red -- -- Chapter 15.; title: Politics, Philosophy, Television, and Cush' Sobash'ya -- -- Chapter 16.; title: Your Very Best Man -- -- Chapter 17.; title: Welcome to the Monkey Cage -- -- Chapter 18.; title: The Mysterious Unknown Propellant Project -- -- Chapter 19.; title: Smoke and Fire -- -- Chapter 20.; title: Don't Drink the Rocket Fuel -- -- Chapter 21.; title: Pusk! -- -- Chapter 22.; title: The Dutchman Cometh -- -- Chapter 23.; title: 310 at 1.75 and 0.8615 for 155 -- -- Chapter 24.; title: The Law of Unintended Consequences -- -- Chapter 25.; title: Satellite without a Name -- -- Chapter 26.; title: Wings of the Condor --; title: Author's Note --; title: Acknowledgments --; title: Notes --; title: Index.