Yuki’s Reviews > Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars > Status Update

Barbara delighted in the Magellan team. They were dear to one another, their friendships glued together with the sugary icing of birthday cakes. It was a small thing, remembering birthdays, yet after decades of working on missions, she knew that it was the sign of a strong team and a great project manager.

Barbara applauded Pickering, full of respect for her director and enjoying what she assumed would be her last beauty contest. Her focus was on Mariner. She didn't work on Ranger, so her thoughts lingered on her Mars trajectories. At the same time she was thinking about her family. She was pregnant again.

The women were now hard at work on the Mariner program, the favorite child at JPL. Similar to Ranger, it used an Atlas-Agena launch vehicle, but unlike the moon probe, Mariner was bound for Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Everyone was excited to work on it.

When Helen first learned of the plan, she thought it seemed utterly preposterous. The idea was to launch a rocket to the moon. They would beef up Juno, adding even more Baby Sergeants, and use the Microlock system to track the rocket. Barbara laughed when she saw the list of objectives: "1. Get pictures, 2. Refine space guidance techniques, 3. Impress the world."

The hysteria grew. Stories of spies concealed in America's laboratories dominated the headlines. JPL held meetings on the growing Soviet menace while the FBI pried into everyone's past. Until then, Barbara hadn't paid much attention to the news. She loved music on the radio but didn't listen to newscasts. She like going to the movies but rarely watch the newsreels. She almost never read the paper.