Black History Month - Annie Eastley
Annie Jean Eastley 1933 - 2011 Continuing with Black History Month this blog post celebrates the life and work of Annie Easley (1933-2011) . Annie Jean Easley helped make modern spaceflight possible. Her work at NASA (and its predecessor NACA) as a computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist laid the technological foundations that future space launches, including the Cassini satellite destined to explore Saturn, relied upon. She was born on 23 Apr 1933 in Birmingham Alabama. This was before the US Civil Rights Act, which meant that, as a black person, her education and career opportunities were very limited, and she had to make the best of every chance she got. She was raised by a single mother who encouraged her that she could do anything she wanted as long as she worked at it. After graduating top of her year at high school, she studied pharmacy in New Orleans (she did not graduate), returning to Birmingham when she was 21 to work as a supply teacher. In between teachi