Susan G. Finley for Kids

Quick facts for kids Susan G. Finley

Born	1936/1937 (age 88–89)
Education	Scripps College (attended)
Known for	Computing, engineering
Children	Two sons
Awards	NASA Group Achievement Award
Scientific career
Fields	Engineering
Institutions	Convair Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Susan G. Finley is an amazing engineer from California. She has worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) since January 1958. This makes her the woman who has worked at NASA the longest!

Just two days before the Explorer 1 satellite launched, Susan started her job. She was a "human computer" back then. This meant she calculated how rockets would fly using only her brain and paper. Today, she is a special engineer for NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). At JPL, she has helped explore the Moon, the Sun, all the planets, and other parts of our Solar System.

About Susan Finley
- Early Life and School
- Family Life
Susan's Career at NASA
Awards and Honors
See also

About Susan Finley

Early Life and School

In 1955, Susan Finley started college at Scripps College in California. She wanted to study art and architecture. But Susan was very good at math and computing. She soon realized that engineering was her true calling. After three years, she decided art wasn't for her.

At 21, she left college to become an engineer. She joined a group at Convair in Pomona, California. This group worked with how heat and energy move, called thermodynamics.

Family Life

Susan Finley married Pete Finley, and they had two sons. Early in her career, she took breaks from work for her family. She left JPL twice to support her husband's education. She also took time off to care for her two sons. Susan returned to JPL for good in 1969.

She divorced her husband in the 1970s. Susan said it was hard to balance work and family. There weren't many good options for childcare back then. She tried to keep her work and home life separate. She cooked all meals for her family. Her husband helped with cars and the yard.

Susan's Career at NASA

Starting as a Human Computer

Susan left Scripps College after three years. She applied for a job at Convair. This company built airplanes and rockets. They asked her if she liked working with numbers more than letters. Susan said yes! She started as a human computer. She calculated rocket paths by hand.

In 1958, Susan joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. NASA was officially created in July 1958. This happened after the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite. NASA soon took over JPL.

In the 1950s, many "computers" were women. They solved hard math problems by hand. Susan was one of them. Two days after she started, JPL launched Explorer 1. This was the first satellite from the United States!

Solving Space Mysteries

In 1958, JPL launched Pioneer 3. It was supposed to orbit the Moon. But it failed because a digital computer made a mistake. JPL asked Susan to recalculate the data. She successfully found the correct information!

In 1962, NASA launched Ranger 3. This was their first try to land a spacecraft on the Moon. But it missed the Moon by a lot! Susan's calculations showed NASA just how far it had missed.

Susan took a break from JPL so her husband could go to college. During this time, she learned FORTRAN. This was an early computer programming language. In the 1960s, many male engineers didn't want to do the programming themselves. It was often seen as "women's work."

Susan returned to JPL in 1962. She left again in 1963 to care for her sons. In 1969, she came back to JPL for good. This is when she became a human programmer. She wrote computer programs for JPL's missions. She worked on missions to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These included the Ranger, Mariner, Pioneer, Viking, and Voyager programs.

Deep Space Network Engineer

By the 1970s, female programmers worked closely with male engineers. Susan said the men always treated them as equals. They needed the women's skills to succeed.

Later, in the 1980s, Susan started working on software testing. She also became a subsystem engineer for the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN helps NASA track and talk to all its spacecraft in deep space. They send commands, update software, and collect data.

Susan's team even tracked a Russian spacecraft called Vega. It carried a French balloon to Venus on its way to Halley's Comet. Even though working with the Russians was hard during the Cold War, her team worked well with the French. They successfully sent tracking data for the French balloon. Susan created a program that helped align the DSN's giant antennas with the spacecraft. This was very important to receive data. Susan says this project is her most memorable.

Mars Missions and Beyond

In the 1990s and 2000s, Susan helped with JPL's Mars missions. She developed a special technology. It sent musical tones back to Earth as a rover landed on Mars. These tones told engineers which stage of landing the rover was in. This helped them know if the landing was going well.

This process was used for the Pathfinder mission in 1997. But it was not used for the Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander missions in 1999. Both of those missions were lost. Susan's tones later helped engineers figure out what went wrong. The engineers used her tones to understand what happened in the last moments of the spacecraft.

Susan was at the Goldstone and Tidbinbilla stations during the landings. She was the first to hear the tones that confirmed the landers made it to Mars. Her work wasn't recognized much in the news. This was because reporters only covered JPL's main mission control.

In 2004, Susan's tones were used again for Mars landings. She said all Mars missions that used her tones were successful. The value of her tones became clear after the Mars Polar Lander failed.

In 2008, JPL changed Susan's job title. She became an hourly engineering specialist. This was because she didn't have a Bachelor's Degree. Her pay didn't change, and she could still earn overtime. But she had to clock in and out.

Susan still works full-time for JPL today. She helps the DSN support NASA's newest missions. These include the New Horizons spacecraft's flyby of Pluto and the Juno mission to Jupiter.

Awards and Honors

2013 - NASA Group Achievement Award (Susan received nine certificates)
2018 - NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal

Susan has won several NASA Group Achievement Awards. This award is given to groups who do something amazing for NASA's mission.

In 2018, Susan received the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal. This special medal is for people who are not government employees. It honors their great work on NASA projects. Her many years of hard work have made her the longest-serving woman at National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Susan G. Finley

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