In season 2 of the popular Space for All podcast series, we continue to explore the question of inclusion: examining the ways in which we make space and satellite accessible as a service, as a technology and as an idea. In the final episode of season 2, SSPI Membership Director Tamara Bond-Williams sits down for a “slice of life” conversation with Dr. Gladys B. West – the industry’s first African-American woman inducted into the Space and Satellite Hall of Fame and one of the “hidden figures” behind GPS.
In 1956, she became the second-ever black woman hired to work at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, VA. She initially served as a programmer in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division for large-scale computers and also as project manager for data-processing systems used in the analysis of satellite data. During this time, she also earned her second Masters degree from the University of Oklahoma, this time in Public Administration. In the early 1960s, Dr. West worked on an award-winning astronomical study that demonstrated the regularity of Pluto's motion relative to Neptune. Her work on the astronomical study led Dr. West to begin analyzing data from satellites to put together altimeter-based models of Earth's shape. Based on this work, her supervisor recommended her for the position of project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project, using the first satellite that could remotely sense oceans. Read more about Dr. West.
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