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Passage: The history of women at NASA
In 1958, the United States government created NASA. Women have always been an important part of NASA. But for many years, women were not allowed as astronauts. Most women there worked behind the scenes.

Today, people realize the important roles women have played during NASA's history.

Human Computers
During the early days of NASA, the agency hired many women as human computers. Back then, the term computer referred to a job title for someone who performed difficult mathematical calculations. Human computers made sense of data, or information, for experiments and, eventually, spaceflights. They carried out these calculations by hand.

All of NASA's human computers were women. Many of them were Black women. Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan were especially influential Black women computers. Their work helped one of the first American astronauts, John Glenn, orbit, or travel around, Earth in 1962.

Once NASA began using electronic computers, it no longer needed human computers. Instead, NASA needed computer programmers. These are people who write code, which is a set of instructions that tells a computer what to do. Many of these early programmers were women.

Women Go To Space
In 1961, NASA launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space. Three weeks later, President John F. Kennedy challenged the U.S. to a very large goal of "landing a man on the Moon." But Kennedy's statement only meant "men." Even in the 1960s, NASA did not allow women astronauts.

The Soviet Union was the first to send a woman into space. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova orbited Earth on a Soviet mission. Finally, in 1983, NASA sent the first American woman into space. Her name was Sally Ride. She flew on the space shuttle Challenger. A space shuttle is a vehicle that travels into space, launched by a rocket.

Since Sally Ride's first mission, at least 50 women have now flown on NASA space missions. In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to fly in space. In 1999, NASA astronaut Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.

Breaking Barriers
In 2018, NASA named Holly Ridings as its first female flight director in mission control. A mission control center is a facility that manages space flights.

In 2019, astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made history. They became the first two women to do a spacewalk with only women. A spacewalk is an event where the astronauts leave their vehicle and go out into space.

NASA kept women in the background during its early years. But today, NASA says it hopes to keep improving its opportunities for women in space.

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