Poppy Northcutt, the first woman to work in NASA's Mission Control, discusses the Artemis II mission

[0:00] Their history-making astronauts now hitting the home stretch. [0:04] Live images of the Artemis II crew aboard the Orion spacecraft as they're heading home from their historic trip around the moon. [0:12] The astronauts hurtling toward Earth at more than 1,000 miles per hour, completing today their first of three trajectory burns, T-minus two days till splashdown. [0:23] And that spacecraft is guided by mission control, a room built for precision, for pressure, and for years for men. [0:32] But in 1968, Poppy Northcutt changed that, rewriting history when she became the first female engineer to work in NASA's mission control. [0:42] Northcutt was not just in mission control. [0:45] She played a critical role in plotting return to Earth trajectories for Apollo 8, humanity's first spaceflight to reach the moon's orbit. [0:54] And she did it at just 25 years old. [0:57] Here's Northcutt in her own words from a 1968 interview with ABC News. [1:04] How much problem does a woman have working in a dominantly male environment like mission control? [1:10] I don't think she has any problems. [1:16] How much attention do men pay to a pretty girl in a miniskirt working in their midst? [1:22] Not much. They're too busy with their consoles. [1:25] You gotta love that answer. [1:28] Northcutt's most notable moment came, though, during the Apollo 13 emergency when an explosion crippled the spacecraft, leaving little hope for the three astronauts aboard. [1:38] Back on Earth, it was a race against time, recalculating a way home with almost nothing to work with. [1:45] Northcutt helped find that path, a path so precise it turned near tragedy into one of NASA's greatest rescues. [1:53] Her impact didn't stop in space, though. Seen by millions of people, she shattered expectations, proving that brilliance doesn't have a gender. [2:04] And she joins me now here on set, trailblazer, NASA engineer, and attorney, Poppy Northcutt. [2:10] What an honor. [2:12] So great to have you. [2:13] Well, it's great to be here, especially with the middle of Artemis II going on. [2:18] Isn't it incredible? [2:19] Okay, I want to talk about that mission, but I can't let that question go. [2:24] Here you are at 25, clearly a beautiful young woman, and they're asking you about working in this male environment. [2:30] Your answer is so smart. [2:32] It's so short. [2:33] There's no issue. [2:34] Then the follow-up with a pretty girl in a miniskirt. [2:38] Wait, did you just want to sock them in the nose? [2:41] I sure did. [2:42] Yes and no. [2:44] Yeah, tell me about that moment. [2:46] Well, the thing is that, I mean, sexism was rampant at the time. [2:50] Sure. [2:50] I mean, it was- [2:51] It's 1968. [2:52] It was the territory, okay? [2:53] Right. [2:54] Every woman was experiencing it, so I didn't find it surprising that I would experience it in that role. [3:00] But to me, the most important thing was that I wanted women to know that women could do this kind of work. [3:06] So even if I was walking through a sea of sexism, so be it. [3:12] And women, you know, women noticed. [3:14] Women saw it. [3:15] And fast forward to this crew now. [3:19] I mean, you were the first. [3:23] Now we're seeing, you know, Cook up there with her three fellow astronauts. [3:27] She's making history. [3:29] You know, and look, I know that she and Glover, they don't want to point out, okay, first African-American, first woman. [3:36] We get that. [3:37] They want to- they're saying this is a first for humanity. [3:40] We are all one. [3:41] We're doing this together. [3:42] That's amazing. [3:43] But we do want to recognize, you know, how you did- you were a trailblazer. [3:49] You started that path for other women, you know, to go from mission control to space. [3:55] And that's pretty fantastic. [3:57] Well, there were other women as well. [4:00] I mean, you know, there was the lone woman in launch control during Apollo 11, I think. [4:07] There were a few of us out there, but we were pretty rare. [4:12] What do you think about what we're witnessing today? [4:15] Thinking back to what you were discovering and you were a part of, you know, when you were 25 in mission control to what we are seeing now. [4:23] It's pretty mind-blowing, isn't it? [4:25] It is mind-blowing, but it's also- it took a long time. [4:29] It took longer than it should have. [4:32] I thought we would be- you know, I thought we'd be on Mars by now. [4:36] Really? [4:36] Well, this is a step toward that, right? [4:39] It is. [4:40] So why do you then think it took this long? [4:43] Well, it's about money and priorities from Congress, basically. [4:48] You know, and for some reason, we're more excited whenever it's a race, okay? [4:56] So suddenly we have more interest because we're in a race with the Chinese. [5:00] I don't think we should have to be in a race to be exploring and pushing the boundaries of science. [5:07] We should take that as something we do all the time because that's part of being great and being a great nation. [5:14] Why was this of interest to you at the age of 25? [5:20] I mean, was this something that started as a little girl? [5:22] How did- how did it happen for you? [5:25] I stumbled into it. [5:27] Really? [5:27] Totally stumbled into it. [5:29] I mean, at that time, if you were a young woman going to college, basically you went there. [5:35] The expectation was you were going to get there to get an MRS degree, okay? [5:40] And college graduates that were women would become teachers or nurses or maybe executive assistants. [5:49] And I got out of school. [5:52] I happened to major in math because I was good at it. [5:55] And I didn't know what I was going to do. [5:57] I figured I'd be a school teacher. [5:59] But I got out and I had an interview with a space company, TRW Systems, and it sounded interesting. [6:07] I was hired as a computress, which I thought was very interesting. [6:11] A female computer? [6:13] You know? [6:14] I didn't know about the hidden figures. [6:17] And then I started working there and I thought, this is really interesting. [6:24] So, once this all wraps up, what's going to be the most exciting thing for you? [6:31] Is it going to be the lab on the moon or is it going to finally be that trip to Mars? [6:36] The trip to Mars will definitely be what I'm really, really looking forward to. [6:41] But that next landing on the moon is a big milestone. [6:47] I'm hoping all of this happens. [6:49] I may be two years old, okay? [6:50] I want to live to see all of this. [6:52] And I'm banking on you being right here with me doing the interview when it happens. [6:55] Is that a deal? [6:56] That's a deal. [6:57] You got it. [6:58] Poppy Northcutt, what an honor. [7:00] Thank you for your time. [7:00] Thank you.