Page 68 - All About History - Issue 180-19
P. 68
JOANN MORGAN
ENGINEER, INSTRUMENTATION CONTROLLER
1958 - 2003
Morgan (just left of centre
in this image) was the only
woman in the firing room for
© NASA the Apollo 11 launch
What was your role during the Apollo 11 It truly made my career. The fact that I was there to me how the foreign print media were more
mission and what did it entail? and seen by all of the managers, the contractors, interested in giving a holistic story about women
My job as instrumentation controller in the Launch the other NASA centres and Washington, that scattered throughout NASA, whereas I didn’t
Control Center firing room was associated with the picture of me was in Life magazine and the New experience that with any of the US magazines.
ground systems that supported the launch phase of York Times, although it never said my name.
Apollo 11, understanding and following the health The public affairs officer said, “Oh, can you do Is it surprising that it was not of more
and welfare of all the instrumentation systems. an interview,” but I didn’t do any interviews interest on home soil?
throughout the whole Apollo programme because I think it was just the times that we were in. When
Did you know beforehand you would be they didn’t ask the man next to me or the man four they selected a class of women astronauts, the
the only woman in the firing room? seats down. If they didn’t ask them, then they were attention turned towards them and they became
In later years I learnt that my director, Karl Sendler, only asking me because I was a woman and I just the centrepiece of women’s achievements in space
had decided that he wanted me there and he said wanted to be part of the team, I didn’t want to be exploration, that was such a big thing and so
to me, “You’re my best communicator and I want singled out. important that they be given the opportunity to be
you on the console.” I listened to 21 channels and astronauts. It was okay for me because by that time,
I had to discern who was working what, if the Poppy Northcutt expressed her I was moving into being a division chief and into
systems were going well, if there were problems frustrations being singled out by the management, going to graduate school and getting
and when they were going to be resolved. It press. How was your experience of that? my master’s degree and I really didn’t want the
meant a lot to me because moving into the senior So – unlike Poppy, I remember when she did those attention on me, I just wanted to work and do what
engineering ranks was an acceptance thing, I felt interviews – I turned them down. The only ones I was interested in.
accepted as part of a really large team that was that I ever did all throughout the 1960s and ’70s
doing a very important and historic job. was when they were going to talk about all the What was it like to be the only woman
women in NASA. There was one or two of those working in that male-dominated space?
It must have been extremely validating magazine articles from France and Russia that The men in the room were very respectful and
for you to get that recognition? showcased women and it was kind of strange easy to work with because we were on television
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