Woman working over 50 years at NASA

At 80, Sue Finley is still working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) , where she calculates mathematical equations, such as the trajectory of the name. Fire or spacecraft, for over 50 years.

The knack for numbers

Finley was born in Los Angeles, California (USA), then moved to Fresno City with his family at age 6. Growing up, she returned to California to enroll in Scripps University's arts and architecture, but dropped out of school when she realized she was not gifted in this area. Then she applied to be a clerk at the aircraft manufacturer and Convair rocket in Pomona.

After doing a typing test, the company told her the next day that the position was enough, but they asked her how she felt about the numbers. She replied: 'Oh, I love numbers, much better than writing. So they let me work like a computer , 'Finley said.

In the mid-1950s, many women were able to calculate complex problems by hand involving wind tunnels, missile trajectories, or similar problems as a computer. They sometimes do not have a degree but simply have the ability to calculate with very good numbers.

Sue Finley, 80, photographed the Voyager 1. space probe model (Photo: LA Times).

Finley worked at the Convair for about a year, then married in 1957 and moved to the city of San Gabriel. Her husband - then graduated from the California Institute of Technology - advised his wife to apply for a job at JPL to get closer to home. JPL needed someone who was good at calculating and eventually hired Finley. Three days later, on January 31, 1958, the US space program took a giant step forward when launching the first Explorer 1 satellite into space.'What I remember is that we only have a big cake to celebrate. Not many people worked at JPL at the time , 'Finley recalls.

NASA was founded in July 1958; By December 1958, the agency assumed control of JPL. Since then, Finley is a full-time NASA employee.

Write a spacecraft navigation program

Finley's biggest contribution in his early years at JPL involved Pioneer 3 - a mission probe flying around the Moon and then into the Sun's orbit. She calculated the speed of the probe after the digital computer failed.

Finley worked at JPL for 2 1/2 years. After that, she took a leave, and she moved to Riverside City with her husband to study for a master's degree at the University of California. Here, she attended a week-long free course on the Fortran programming language - developed by IBM in the 1950s for scientific applications. After her husband finished studying, they moved to Pasadena City and Finley decided to return to work for JPL in 1962. At that time, Finley was one of the few people working at JPL about the Fortran programming language. . Currently, one of the programs written by Finley to help navigate the spacecraft in space is still being used by JPL, although there is a slight upgrade.

Finley also took a break from JPL again to take care of his two sons. She returned to office in 1969 and found that there were more women working at JPL than at the time of her leave. Female employees no longer work as computers but become programmers. In the 1970s, female programmers - formerly in a separate office - began joining male engineers to perform various tasks.

The most memorable task

In 1980, Finley began working as a software inspector and subsystem engineer at NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) , which could be the world's largest radio antenna system. connect with spacecraft in interstellar missions, as well as some orbiting spacecraft flying around the Earth.

In 1985, two Russian space exploration vessels belonging to the Venusian project dropped two air balloons into Venus's atmosphere on the flight to Halley comet to collect environmental data. Although this project is a joint mission between the Soviet Union and France, JPL is the operating organization DSN and Finley is responsible for writing a program, including statements that can help DSN antennas automatically navigate. to receive signals from spacecraft.'I remember when we first saw the signal in the dark room, I was jumping with joy , ' said Finley.

Since the 1990s, Finley has been involved in various NASA missions, including the Mars Exploration Robot mission (Mars Exploration Rover) and the Juno spacecraft approaching Jupiter in 2016. She helps set design special radio frequency sets that allow spacecraft to transmit information about the Earth in accordance with the actions it is taking. NASA relies on these signals to update the situation and know what's going on.

Currently, Finley is designing and testing a new radio receiver the size of a pizza box for DSN.