Mary Sherman Morgan (1921-2004) is known as America's first female rocket scientist.
Mary Sherman Morgan (1921-2004) is known as America's first female rocket scientist.
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History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, and Ale Tejeda. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Michelle Monaghan. And this is Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting innovators – from inventors to activists who explored and forged new paths that lead us to where we are today.
Today we’re telling the story of a woman whose unique contributions to the space age were almost erased from history. A newspaper refused to publish an obituary her son had written because they couldn’t verify any of the information. She was later dubbed “The best-kept secret in the space race.” Please welcome Mary Sherman Morgan.
Mary Sherman was born in the small town of Ray, North Dakota, on November 4th, 1921. She came from a large farming family, and spent her childhood immersed in farmyard chores. Her parents didn’t send her to school until she was 9 when the local district forced the family to comply. The district gave young Mary a horse as transport to and from the schoolhouse. Her late start in formal education didn’t seem to hold her back. She graduated high school as the valedictorian in 1939.
Mary had an impressive affinity for chemistry, which earned her a place at Minot State University as a chemistry major. When World War II broke out, Mary left her degree unfinished and went to work in a munitions factory as a chemical analyst, producing explosives for the military.
After the war, she was hired by North American Aviation in California. She was the only woman out of 900 engineers. In 1951 she married a fellow engineer, George Morgan, and became Mary Sherman Morgan.
Six years later, on October 4, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into space: Sputnik 1. The satellite may have been the size of a beach ball but it had a monumental impact on politics, science and technology. As NASA said, “it marked the start of the space age and the US-USSR space race.”
Up until that point, the US military’s efforts to design a competitive orbital space rocket weren’t working out. They hired Mary’s company to create a powerful rocket fuel. Mary was named the technical lead of the project.
Her tireless work resulted in Hydyne [HI-DINE], the rocket fuel used for the first stage of America’s first successful satellite launch, Explorer 1, on January 31,1958.
Explorer 1 later detected the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth, making it the first scientific discovery made in space.
Mary retired from work after the arrival of her second child. She passed away from emphysema in 2004.
The press coverage of Explorer 1 from the time is rich with photographs of Wernher von Braun, who was widely celebrated as the inventor of the rocket that launched the first US satellite. Even though his rocket never would’ve taken off without Mary’s Hydyne fuel, her work was little-known and unrecognized for many years.
This was in part caused by the secrecy of the program but also due to Mary’s own intense privacy. “She intentionally eschewed the fame she could have had,” said her son and biographer George Morgan, who has been on a mission since his mother’s death to bring back her story from oblivion.
Thanks to his persistence on getting her name out there, Mary Sherman Morgan has come to be known as the inventive rocket scientist she was.
For more information and pictures of some of the work we’re talking about, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Jenny and Liz Kaplan for inviting me to guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!