Frances Northcutt facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Frances Northcutt
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Northcutt in 2019
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| Born | August 10, 1943 |
| Other names | Poppy |
| Alma mater | University of Texas University of Houston Law Center |
| Occupation | Engineer, lawyer, stockbroker |
Frances "Poppy" Northcutt, born on August 10, 1943, is an amazing American engineer and lawyer. She started her career working with computers and later became a key part of NASA's Apollo program during the exciting Space Race. During the Apollo 8 mission, she made history as the first female engineer to work inside NASA's Mission Control.
Later in her life, Poppy Northcutt became a lawyer who focused on women's rights. In the early 1970s, she was on the national board for the National Organization for Women. She has also worked in Houston, helping to support important rights for women.
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Early Life and Education
Poppy Northcutt was born in Many, Louisiana, on August 10, 1943. She grew up in Luling, Texas, and then moved to Dayton, Texas. She went to high school at Dayton High School and later studied mathematics at the University of Texas.
Her Career Journey
Working with the Apollo Program
After finishing college in just three and a half years, Northcutt was hired in 1965 by TRW. This company was an aerospace contractor that worked closely with NASA in Houston. She started as a "computress" for the new Apollo program. After six months, her bosses saw how talented she was and wanted to promote her to a technical staff position, which meant doing engineering work.
Poppy Northcutt was the first woman to be promoted to this technical staff role. The pay difference between her old job and the new one was so big that the company had to give her pay raises very often to make sure her salary was fair compared to her male co-workers. This experience with the gender pay gap (where women are paid less than men for the same work) later inspired her to fight for women's rights.
Northcutt worked in the Mission Control room, specifically in the Mission Planning and Analysis section. She and her team designed the path that the Apollo 8 crew would take to return to Earth from the Moon. She even found ways to improve the plan, like making calculations that helped save fuel during the trip around the Moon. Apollo 8 was a huge success; it was the second crewed Apollo mission and the first time humans ever left Earth's orbit, reached the Moon, orbited it, and returned safely on December 27, 1968.
Northcutt continued to work with TRW and NASA for several more years, helping with missions like Apollo 13. When the oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13, Northcutt and other engineers worked tirelessly to find a way to bring the astronauts home safely. The computer program she helped create was used to figure out the maneuvers needed to return the spacecraft. For their amazing work on Apollo 13, Northcutt and the Mission Operations Team received the Presidential Medal of Freedom Team Award. In 2019, she shared more about her work on the Apollo missions in an interview.
Some stories have claimed that a lunar crater near where the Apollo 17 Lunar Module landed was named after her. However, Gene Cernan, the commander of the Apollo 17 mission, said that he had named a crater "Poppie" after his daughter's nickname for her grandfather. NASA documents later misspelled it as "Poppy." These were unofficial names used by the astronauts. The official list of lunar names does not include "Poppie" or "Poppy" for craters.
However, on December 19, 2023, a main-belt asteroid (a small rocky body orbiting the Sun) was officially named "Poppy" in her honor! This asteroid is called (355657) 2008 EA89.
Fighting for Women's Rights
While working at TRW, Northcutt was part of the company's committee that worked to ensure fair treatment for all employees. She also pushed for better policies regarding pregnancy leave. As one of the few women in engineering, Northcutt became very involved in the women's liberation movement. She helped organize protests, speeches, and press releases to support the cause with the National Organization for Women.
She spoke many times at the Houston City Council. In 1974, the mayor of Houston named her the city's first Women's Advocate. In this role, she helped pass laws that improved the lives of women. She helped make an agreement with the Houston Police Department so that women could become police officers. She also convinced the Houston Fire Department to allow women to serve as firefighters. She even led a study to make sure men and women were paid equally across the entire city government. She was so dedicated that she even counted the number of women's versus men's restrooms throughout Houston to help make them equal.
Northcutt also helped greatly increase the number of women appointed to important city boards and commissions. She helped pass a law that stopped hospitals from charging women who came in for medical exams after a crime. Later, Northcutt became the President of both the Houston chapter and the Texas state chapter for the National Organization for Women.
During this time, Northcutt was still employed by TRW, even though she was working for the city. After her time working for the city ended, she returned to TRW for a while. She believed that if you did your job well, you might work yourself out of that specific job. So, she decided to try something new and worked at Merrill Lynch, a stockbroker firm, for about a year. Northcutt then moved to the TRW Controls division and, at the same time, went to law school at night.
Her Legal Career
In 1984, Northcutt graduated with honors from the University of Houston Law Center. She became a criminal defense lawyer. Northcutt continued to practice law, always focusing on her fight for civil rights. She worked for Jane's Due Process, an organization that helps pregnant young people understand their legal rights. She also worked for the Harris County District Attorney's office and was the first prosecutor in their Domestic Violence Unit, which helps victims of domestic abuse.
See also
In Spanish: Frances Northcutt para niños
