INTERCOM MEDIA - Key Persons

Max is a tech enthusiast and gaming aficionado with a passion for all things digital. With years of experience in the gaming industry, Max brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our blog. As an avid gamer and e-sports enthusiast, he stays up to date with the latest gaming trends, gadgets, and e-sports competitions. Max enjoys sharing his insights, tips, and recommendations with our readers, helping them enhance their gaming experience and embrace the digital lifestyle. With a knack for writing engaging and informative content, Max is dedicated to keeping our audience informed, entertained, and inspired.

Job Titles:

• Key Member of NASA
• Life After NASA
• the Origin Story

Born in Louisiana in 1943, Poppy Northcutt spent most of her life in Texas, eventually studying at the University of Texas (now called UT Austin) and earning a degree in Mathematics. After college, she spent time in a NASA contracting company called TRW Systems, where she went straight to work on the Gemini project. At that time, NASA relied heavily on ‘computress': employees who were tasked with checking, re-checking, solving, and proving correct the equations that engineers and physicists would provide them. This was because, back in the mid-'60s, working with computers was a time-consuming and manpower-heavy affair, involving reams upon reams of paper punch cards. To make the computation work more efficient, NASA sub-contracted the computing -which was work that was done by hand by humans at the time -to companies like TRW Systems. As the name suggests, most -if not all -the computress were female, as engineering was then considered a ‘man's job'. But Poppy defied this with her determination and sheer talent. Poppy distinguished herself among her peers by not just being the best at what she does, but also because she wasn't satisfied with just coming up with the correct numbers: she wanted to understand what the numbers meant. Poppy cut her teeth in the space race big leagues when she worked on Apollo 8. It was one of the most memorable and groundbreaking missions of NASA for a few reasons: it was going to be humanity's first-ever crewed mission to reach Moon orbit using highly experimental equipment and vehicles that will later become the staple for all future lunar missions. Poppy Northcutt remained a key member of NASA and their contractor TRW Systems for a decade, working in the Gemini, Apollo, and other projects. She worked as an engineer while attending law school, and in 1981, she eventually earned her law degree from the University of Houston and left the engineering field. After NASA, Poppy Northcutt worked for the District Attorney's office in Harris County in Houston, becoming the first felony prosecutor in the domestic violence unit, worked as a court clerk for a Federal Appellate Judge in Alabama, before finally going into private practice. Throughout both her legal and engineering careers, Poppy Northcutt was well aware of the struggles women had in the professional world, leading her to lobby for more equal rights for women. Despite the horrible chauvinism and misogyny of her time, Poppy Northcutt defied all odds and became a crucial member of NASA and was critical in bringing home astronauts safely. It's also worth noting that she and her team's calculations paved the way for modern computers and, in effect, the top trending techs of today.