286:. She helped organize demonstrations, strikes, speeches, press releases and whatever else she could to help the cause with the National Organization for Women. She spoke at Houston City Council many times, and in 1974 the mayor of Houston named her the first Women's Advocate for the city. In this position she helped pass legislation improving the status of women. She negotiated an agreement with the Houston Police Department enabling women to become police officers. She got the Houston Fire Department to agree to let women serve as firefighters. She led an equal-pay study of the entire Houston municipal payroll. She was so dedicated to improving equality that she counted women's versus men's
262:, the commander of the Apollo 17 mission, stated in an interview for the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal that in advance of the mission, he had named a crater after the nickname that his daughter used for one of her grandfathers. That nickname was "Poppie". NASA documents misspelled it as "Poppy". Apollo crews and the NASA Astronaut Office assigned unofficial names to lunar features for convenience in referring to them. Other names given by Cernan to craters near the landing site were "Punk", his nickname for his daughter, and "
33:
244:. After learning about the exploded oxygen tank on the Apollo 13 mission, Northcutt and the other engineers who developed the computer program for Apollo 13 all came in to find a way to get the astronauts home safely. The program that she worked on was used to compute the maneuvers used to return the spacecraft. Northcutt and the Mission Operations Team were later awarded the
220:
work. Northcutt was the first woman to work as technical staff. The pay difference between the computress role and the technical staff role was so large that the company did not have mechanisms in place to approve
Northcutt's promotion. The operations manager had to schedule pay raises as frequently
232:
crew took from the Moon back to Earth. She was able to identify mistakes in the plan, including making calculations that lowered the amount of fuel used to swing around the Moon. Apollo 8 was the second crewed Apollo spacecraft and became the first crewed mission to ever leave Earth orbit. It
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During this time, Northcutt was still employed by TRW, receiving a partial salary as she was on loan. When her loan expired, she went back to TRW for a while. However, she believed that "If you were doing your job, you should do yourself out of a job" and thus went to
270:", the names of characters in children's Christmastime stories. The International Astronomical Union's / U.S. Geological Survey's Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature has no entries for lunar craters named either "Poppie" or "Poppy".
281:
While at TRW, Northcutt served on the company's affirmative action committee and advocated to improve its pregnancy leave policies. As one of few women working in engineering, Northcutt became increasingly involved in the
987:
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Northcutt helped drastically increase the number of women that were on appointed boards and commissions. She helped pass a law that prohibited hospitals from charging women who came in for
216:. After six months, she had her first performance evaluation, and the head of Houston operations wanted to promote her to technical staff, the term they used for staff doing
359:, the character Margo Madison is believed by some to be loosely based on Northcutt, although the show creator claimed to have based the character on a NASA photograph of
458:
273:
On
December 19, 2023, the IAU: WG Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN) announce that the Main-belt Asteroid (355657)2008 EA89 was named "Poppy" in her honor.
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Northcutt was stationed in the
Mission Control's Mission Planning and Analysis room. Northcutt and her team designed the return-to-Earth trajectory that the
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337:. Northcutt worked for Jane's Due Process, an organization that ensures protections for pregnant legal minors. She also worked for the
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297:. Later on, Northcutt would become President of both the city of Houston chapter and the state of Texas chapter for the
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as possible so that
Northcutt's salary was equitable compared to her male colleagues. This experience with the
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832:"Career Advice From Poppy Northcutt — Activist, Lawyer, and NASA's First Female Engineer in Mission Control"
554:"Career Advice From Poppy Northcutt — Activist, Lawyer, and NASA's First Female Engineer in Mission Control"
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408:"This Amazing 25-Year-Old Woman Helped Bring Apollo Astronauts Back From The Moon - Business Insider"
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Northcutt continued working with TRW and NASA for several more years, working NASA missions such as
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Mrs. D's
Timeline Costumes A collection of amazing women and the clothing I use to represent them
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333:. Northcutt continued to practice law with special emphasis and dedication to her fight for
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Frances “Poppy” Northcutt discusses being the first woman to work in NASA’s
Mission Control
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459:"NOW state rep talks with the TransAdvocate about TERFs, trans-inclusion and civil rights"
8:
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District
Attorney's office and was the first prosecutor in the Domestic Violence Unit.
112:(born August 10, 1943) is an American engineer and attorney who began her career as a "
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for their work on Apollo 13. In 2019 she gave an interview about her Apollo work.
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Lay-audience books and articles have claimed that a lunar crater near where the
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After graduating in three and a half years, Northcutt was hired in 1965 by
143:. In the early 1970s, she served on the national board of directors of the
806:"How Poppy Northcutt cracked NASA's boy's club and became a feminist icon"
585:"How Poppy Northcutt cracked NASA's boys' club and became a feminist icon"
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throughout all of
Houston, helping to bring even this number into parity.
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DOI:10.1063/PT.6.3.20191120a Nov 20, 2019, Retrieved
November 12, 2022.
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Steafel, Eleanor (July 20, 2019). "One woman in a room full of men".
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237:, orbited it and then returned to Earth safely on December 27, 1968.
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Review: For All
Mankind rewrites history with a prolonged space race
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309:, a stockbroker firm, for a year. Northcutt then switched into the
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Later in her career, Northcutt became an attorney specializing in
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Houston, We've Had a Problem: The Story of the Apollo 13 Disaster
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University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences alumni
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mission, she became the first female engineer to work in NASA's
718:"Apollo 17 Lunar Module Onboard Voice Transcription MSC-07630"
389:(Motion picture). Washington D.C.: Kunhardt McGee Productions.
897:"Poppy Northcutt: Return to Earth Specialist (digital short)"
517:"Frances Northcutt - Houston Public Library Digital Archives"
147:. Now, she works and volunteers for several organizations in
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division and during this time attended law school at night.
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inspired Northcutt's later activism for women's rights.
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NASA JPL Small-Body Database Lookup 355657 (2008 EA89)
116:", and was later a member of the technical staff of
883:. London: Daily Telegraph plc. pp. 56–59, 61.
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668:"Apollo 11 and the Woman Who Helped Get It Home"
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793:MPC Database (355657) = 2008 EA89 = 2011 UE24
481:"Poppy Northcutt Continues To Make History"
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16:Former NASA Trajectory Engineer
804:Karlin, Susan (July 5, 2019).
693:"The Valley of Taurus-Littrow"
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385:Barteski, Ed (Editor) (2014).
212:, as a computress for the new
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321:In 1984, Northcutt graduated
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95:Engineer, lawyer, stockbroker
968:American computer scientists
771:WGSBN Bulletin 3, #17 page 3
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993:21st-century American women
873:Further reading and viewing
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515:Ely, Jane (April 3, 2008).
284:women's liberation movement
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179:and then went on to study
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331:criminal defense lawyer
277:Women's rights movement
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163:Northcutt was born in
387:MAKERS Women in Space
903:. PBS. July 10, 2019
855:Paul K. Guinnessy, "
435:. PBS. July 10, 2019
171:, and then moved to
461:. The TransAdvocate
433:American Experience
414:. December 9, 2014.
185:University of Texas
82:University of Texas
973:American feminists
527:on August 28, 2014
345:In popular culture
927:Los Angeles Times
672:www.planetary.org
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361:Margaret Hamilton
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836:Teen Vogue
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558:Teen Vogue
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159:Early life
126:Space Race
114:computress
49:1943-08-10
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351:Apple TV+
325:from the
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288:bathrooms
253:Apollo 17
242:Apollo 13
110:Northcutt
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731:July 26,
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677:July 23,
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230:Apollo 8
130:Apollo 8
922:YouTube
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349:In the
268:Rudolph
266:" and "
210:Houston
183:at the
149:Houston
102:Frances
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264:Frosty
191:Career
920:, on
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
