'As a female rocket scientist, I was sometimes the only woman in a room of 200 men when launching rockets for NASA.' At just six years old, Olympia LePoint knew her future was to become a scientist. Read about her journey as a woman of color through an...
At California State University Northridge, where I studied math, I had the best mentors and professors, but it was 1993, so I was one of very few females in my classes. I remember walking into a calculus class and the young men there asked me if I was in the right place. At the time, not all the young men were used to working with girls.
I later worked up to becoming a propulsion scientist, commonly known as a rocket scientist. I worked on 28 NASA space launch missions doing systems safety and reliability aerospace engineering. In that process, I used mathematics and science to calculate the probability of catastrophic explosions in space flight; I was able to determine how catastrophic engine failures would more than likely happen and how to prevent them.
Olympia LePoint was one of the only women working on NASA space shuttle launches at Boeing in the early 2000s.The second launch that really sticks out to me was when Robert went up into space in December 2006 for the Space Shuttle STS-116. I remember sitting in my ROSC Mission Control room seat, completely focused and praying for his safety. There was a moment in that room, that day, where I realized I was truly part of something groundbreaking. I was a part of the future.
On the second day on the job in 1998, I was told by a supportive woman in the restroom that I needed to remain calm and collected in the future when I would be tested by some men who wanted to see my role given to another man. She said that there was a group of women there who supported me, and to come into the restroom for support when I needed to talk. Her words helped me when I encountered tough situations as a female engineer.
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