That’s no Moon, it’s a space station—or, rather, a satellite. With its spherical shape and piecemeal construction, it’s easy to see similarities between the Telstar satellite on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the infamous Death Star of the Star Wars films. Aside from a passing resemblance in design, both pieces of technology also address a larger question that has been a focal point for humankind in reality and fantasy: what does space mean for humanity?
In the late 1960s, Poppy Northcutt was a return-to-Earth specialist with TRW, working on a contract with NASA on one of the most exciting adventures of the 20th century: humanity’s quest for the Moon. With computer programming skills and a degree in mathematics, she worked with her team at TRW on the development of the return-to-Earth program.
"Mainly I worked on developing return-to-Earth trajectories that would be used when they were in the vicinity of the Moon," Poppy said in a recent phone interview. "It was designed from the get-go to be a program that would calculate in real-time a return to Earth—whether you are talking about good circumstances or bad."
When NASA accelerated the schedule for Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the Moon, it meant that development of a critical part of that mission, the return-to-Earth software, would need to be accelerated as well. Before launch, the software needed to undergo testing and the flight controllers needed training on the program. To meet the deadline, Poppy was assigned to work in the Mission Control center directly with the retrofire officers, becoming the first female engineer in Mission Control.
Since its opening, and until recent years, our Zeiss Model VIa optical planetarium projector has brought the wonder of the night sky to countless visitors. The Zeiss Company no longer services the over 40 year-old model, and though its stars are as sharp as ever, and its skies deep in their dramatic blackness, its celestial motors have become weary, so it has been retired in favor of an ever-improving digital projection system that offers many advantages to meet modern programming needs. The Albert Einstein Planetarium theater itself is also closing as our multi-year renovation progresses through the Museum, but it will eventually reopen as a fully digital experience. Now that we have said goodbye to its original projector, the Zeiss Model VIa, the question is, of course, how did it get here?
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