Annie Easley
Rocket scientist and programmer of the Centaur upper stage
At a glance
- Inventor
- Annie Easley
- Life
- 1933–2011
- Birthplace
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Country
- United States
- Region
- United States
- Era
- 1950–2000
- Fields
- Space & Aerospace, Technology & Computing
- Evidence
- Documented
- Records
- 1 in this archive
What they did
Easley joined NACA as a human computer in 1955 and became a computer scientist and mathematician at NASA Lewis, writing and analysing code for the Centaur high-energy upper stage and for energy-conversion and battery studies.
Historical context
Centaur's liquid-hydrogen stage became the workhorse that launched planetary probes, military and weather satellites.
Obstacles
Before moving north she had helped Black residents of Alabama prepare for the literacy tests used to keep them from voting — she had passed the test herself.
The legacy
Her energy-systems analysis fed into later work on solar, wind and battery technology as well as launch vehicles.
The evidence
Annie Easley oral history and Lewis Research Center records
Primary record
Documentation strength
- 1
- Sources
- 1
- Primary
- 1
- Publishers
Calculated from the sources actually attached to this record — the closer a source sits to the original document, the more it counts. It is never asserted by hand.