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bethgiven 's review for:
After watching the movie Hidden Figures, I was ready to plunge into some reading about women and space -- and having heard that Hidden Figures (the book) was a little dry (though I still think I'll give it a shot), I reached for this one instead.
I really enjoyed the broad scope and clear writing of this book. I learned a LOT. The author began this book with the very earliest days of rocketry -- a bunch of Caltech college boys dubbed the Suicide Squad, based on their explosive hobby. Soon, the group got more funding and a real name: JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). In a little canyon in Pasadena, the lab first developed and tested rockets used for military might; then, the rockets exploded into space. I'm fascinated by the exponential rate in which the technology developed: it took years for the rockets to break through earth's atmosphere, but only a few more years before they were circling other planets. Computing power was the same: after cranking out calculations for years and then having monstrous-sized computers filling entire rooms, microprocessors made of silicon made computing by hand a thing of the past.
I find space exploration particularly fascinating, so I loved getting a whole run-down in one book. I finally have a basic understanding and timeline for all the missions I'd heard about (Apollo, yes, but also Mariner and Viking and Voyager and Magellan and Spirit and Opportunity). It was interesting to read about both their failures and successes.
Central to the author's story are the women who were instrumental in getting these rockets into space. If you've seen Hidden Figures, you know part of the story: these women were hired as computers (people who compute) before machines could do that work. They plugged in the math, calculating the trajectories, and then became the first programmers, as well. Many of these women became engineers, critical to 21st century space exploration. I really enjoyed learning about them, though admittedly it was a little tricky to keep track of who was who -- there were so many of them! (That's a good thing!)
This was just a little bit slow-going for me in places (possibly more indicative of my own life than the merits of this book, though admittedly I didn't care much for the military section ... probably much like the JPL engineers themselves). And since this book was so broad in its scope, covering 50+ years of history, I was left with a lot of questions. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book for all I learned, and I'm eager to find more well-written space-y books!
I really enjoyed the broad scope and clear writing of this book. I learned a LOT. The author began this book with the very earliest days of rocketry -- a bunch of Caltech college boys dubbed the Suicide Squad, based on their explosive hobby. Soon, the group got more funding and a real name: JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). In a little canyon in Pasadena, the lab first developed and tested rockets used for military might; then, the rockets exploded into space. I'm fascinated by the exponential rate in which the technology developed: it took years for the rockets to break through earth's atmosphere, but only a few more years before they were circling other planets. Computing power was the same: after cranking out calculations for years and then having monstrous-sized computers filling entire rooms, microprocessors made of silicon made computing by hand a thing of the past.
I find space exploration particularly fascinating, so I loved getting a whole run-down in one book. I finally have a basic understanding and timeline for all the missions I'd heard about (Apollo, yes, but also Mariner and Viking and Voyager and Magellan and Spirit and Opportunity). It was interesting to read about both their failures and successes.
Central to the author's story are the women who were instrumental in getting these rockets into space. If you've seen Hidden Figures, you know part of the story: these women were hired as computers (people who compute) before machines could do that work. They plugged in the math, calculating the trajectories, and then became the first programmers, as well. Many of these women became engineers, critical to 21st century space exploration. I really enjoyed learning about them, though admittedly it was a little tricky to keep track of who was who -- there were so many of them! (That's a good thing!)
This was just a little bit slow-going for me in places (possibly more indicative of my own life than the merits of this book, though admittedly I didn't care much for the military section ... probably much like the JPL engineers themselves). And since this book was so broad in its scope, covering 50+ years of history, I was left with a lot of questions. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book for all I learned, and I'm eager to find more well-written space-y books!