Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt

“Holt's accessible and heartfelt narrative celebrates the women whose crucial role in American space science often go unrecognized.” 'Holt's book shines portraying the mathematical and engineering process behind JPL's many iconic spaceflight missions - including America's first satellite, Explorer 1, and the Voyager probes that explored the solar system - as well as the women's personal lives and the evolution of their unusual roles inside the male-dominated workplace.” “A must read for any women in tech or interested in technology!” Calculating is a physical, even athletic, act.” 'Intercut with the human stories, Holt carefully lays out practical problems - such as the need to minimize fuel weight while ensuring that a rocket could reach escape velocity - and how mathematics helped to solved them. “ stories are fun, intense, and endearing, and they give a new perspective on the rise of the space age.” Rise of the Rocket Girls proves that by reexamining the space age–specifically, the group of women who redesigned rocket science in the ’40s and ’50s and made that 'one small step for man' possible in the first place.” “Most of our time in history class is spent learning about men, but women were obviously just as vital to innovation and progress. “Illuminating… these women are vividly depicted at work, at play, in and out of love, raising children - and making history. 'The book acts as a fascinating time capsule, capturing what it was like to be a working woman at a time when only 20 percent of women worked outside the home, or when a woman could be fired simply for being pregnant.” So began the marvelous obsession that seeded this marvelous book…. Holt was riveted by the mystery of how many such unsung women of space-science might be hidden in history, what their lives were like in an era very different from our own, and how those lives shaped so much of what we take for granted today. 'In Rise of the Rocket Girls, microbiologist Nathalia Holt reclaims the role of these unheralded women scientists in the field that has enchanted humanity’s collective imagination more powerfully than any other: space exploration…. A New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best SellerĪ Los Angeles Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best SellerĪn Entertainment Weekly “10 Books You Have to Read in April”

Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt