Frances Northcutt

Frances "Poppy" Northcutt (born August 10, 1943) is an American engineer and attorney who began her career as a computer operator and was later a member of the technical staff of NASA's Apollo program during the Space Race. During the Apollo 8 mission she became the first female engineer to work in NASA's Mission Control.

Later in her career, Northcutt became an attorney specializing in women's rights. In the early 1970s, she served on the national board of directors of the National Organization for Women. She has worked in Houston advocating for abortion rights.

Early life Northcutt was born in Many, Louisiana, on August 10, 1943. She grew up in Luling, Texas, and then moved to Dayton, Texas. Northcutt attended high school at Dayton High School in Liberty County and then went on to study mathematics at the University of Texas.

Career Apollo Program After graduating in three and a half years, Northcutt was hired in 1965 by TRW, an aerospace contractor with NASA in Houston, as a computer for the new Apollo program. After six months, she had her first performance evaluation, and the head of Houston operations wanted to promote her to technical staff, the term they used for staff doing engineering work. Northcutt was the first woman to work as technical staff. The pay difference between the computress role and the technical staff role was so large that the company did not have mechanisms in place to approve Northcutt's promotion. The operations manager had to schedule pay raises as frequently as possible so that Northcutt's salary was equitable compared to her male colleagues.

Northcutt continued working with TRW and NASA for several more years, working NASA missions such as Apollo 13. After learning about the exploded oxygen tank on the Apollo 13 mission, Northcutt and the other engineers who developed the computer program for Apollo 13 all came in to find a way to get the astronauts home safely.

Lay-audience books and articles have claimed that a lunar crater near where the Apollo 17 Lunar Module landed was named for her. The International Astronomical Union's / U.S. Geological Survey's Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature has no entries for lunar craters named either "Poppie" or "Poppy."

On December 19, 2023, the IAU: WG Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN) announce that the Main-belt Asteroid (355657)2008 EA89 was named "Poppy" in her honor.

Women's rights movement While at TRW, Northcutt served on the company's affirmative action committee and advocated to improve its pregnancy leave policies. As one of few women working in engineering, Northcutt became increasingly involved in the women's liberation movement. She helped organize demonstrations, strikes, speeches, press releases and whatever else she could to help the cause with the National Organization for Women.

In popular culture She is mentioned in the Apple TV+ show For All Mankind. She is also profiled and interviewed in PBS' American Experience "Chasing The Moon, Pt.2".