Eleanor C. Pressly Explained

Eleanor C. Pressly
Birth Date: 1918
Birth Place:Due West, South Carolina, US
Death Place:Rockville, Maryland, US
Occupation:mathematician, aeronautical engineer
Known For:sounding rocket program, Goddard Space Flight Center

Eleanor Crockett Pressly (1918 – May 10, 2003) was an American mathematician and aeronautical engineer in the sounding rocket program at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Early life

Eleanor Crockett Pressly was born in Due West, South Carolina,[1] the only child of Samuel Agnew Pressly and Georgia Crockett Pressly.[2] [3] She earned a bachelor's degree at Erskine College in 1938, and a master's degree in mathematics at Duke University in 1943.[4] [5]

Career

During World War II, Pressly taught mathematics to air corps students at Winthrop College and worked at Radio Research Laboratory at Harvard University. After the war, she was a mathematician and aeronautical research engineer at the United States Naval Research Laboratory[6] and was a member of the American Rocket Society. She also oversaw launches at White Sands Missile Range[7] [8] and Fort Churchill in Manitoba. "No matter how many times it happens, I can never get over the excitement of a launching," she told an interviewer in 1957.

Pressly transferred to the Goddard Space Flight Center soon after it opened in 1958, and was head of the Vehicles Section in the Spacecraft Integration and Sounding Rocket Division, in charge of probes launched into the upper atmosphere.[9] She developed the Aerobee Jr., co-developed Aerobee-Hi 150, and oversaw the design of the Aerobee Hi 150 A, all sounding rockets used during the International Geophysical Year (1957–1958).[10] When James E. Webb spoke to the General Federation of Women's Clubs in 1962, he mentioned Pressly by name as one of the women in a "position of importance" at NASA.[11]

In 1963 Pressly was one of the six recipients of the Federal Woman's Award, given to career federal employees who made significant contributions to their programs.[12] In 1964, Lady Bird Johnson invited Pressly to the White House again, for a luncheon about women in the space program.[13] In 1966, she chaired a panel at the Conference on Unguided Rocket Ballistics in El Paso, Texas.[14] In 1981 she was honored with the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award from the Erskine Alumni Association.[15]

Publications

Publications by Pressly included "Counting with Geiger Counters" (Review of Scientific Instruments 1949, with Homer E. Newell),[16] Upper Atmosphere Research Report Number 21. Summary of Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Firings (Naval Research Laboratory, February 1954, with Charles P. Smith Jr.),[17] "A Mass Spectrometric Study of the Upper Atmosphere" (1954, with John W. Townsend Jr. and Edith B. Meadows),[18] "Future Sounding Rockets" (1958, with Newell and Townsend)[19] "The Aerobee Rocket" (1958, with Townsend and James Van Allen),[20] and "The Sounding Rocket as a Tool for College and University Research" (NASA, December 1962).

Personal life

Pressly died in Rockville, Maryland, in 2003, aged 84 years. Her only noted survivor was a cousin.[21]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Miss Rocketeer. Leighton. Frances. April 28, 1957. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times. June 8, 2019. 87. Newspapers.com.
  2. News: Dies as Result of Thyroid Operation. April 18, 1931. Bluefield Daily Telegraph. June 8, 2019. 5. Newspapers.com.
  3. News: Pressly-Crockett. September 28, 1917. Clinch Valley News. June 8, 2019. 1. Chronicling America.
  4. Pressly, Eleanor C. "The Sounding Rocket as a Tool for College and University Research" Geophysics and Astronomy in Space Exploration (December 1962): 1-6.
  5. News: Miss Pressly to Winthrop College. August 23, 1943. The Index-Journal. June 8, 2019. 2. Newspapers.com.
  6. News: Woman Plays Vital Research Role. Hart. Alicia. October 21, 1956. The Daily Inter Lake. June 8, 2019. 20. Newspapers.com.
  7. News: Rocket Gets Feminine Touch. February 19, 1958. The Honolulu Advertiser. June 8, 2019. 2. Newspapers.com.
  8. News: Woman Heads Navy Project. Cange. Don. February 21, 1958. Wind & Sand. June 8, 2019.
  9. Corliss, William R. NASA Sounding Rockets: A Historical Summary (NASA 1971): 80.
  10. Book: Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization. Venture Into Space: Early Years of Goddard Space Flight Center. 1968. NASA. 16, 238.
  11. News: Space Effort Needs the Support of Women, Children, Says Webb. July 11, 1962. NASA Roundup. June 9, 2019. 8.
  12. News: Awards to Honor 6 Women. April 7, 1963. The Courier-Journal. June 8, 2019. 13. Newspapers.com.
  13. News: Charlotte Native White House Guest. March 17, 1964. Asheville Citizen-Times. June 8, 2019. 17. Newspapers.com.
  14. News: Panel Ends Rocket Conference. September 2, 1966. El Paso Times. June 8, 2019. 9. Newspapers.com.
  15. Web site: Sullivan Award. Erskine College. en-US. June 8, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190609032347/https://www.erskine.edu/alumni/alumni-awards/sullivan-award/. June 9, 2019.
  16. Newell. Homer E.. Pressly. Eleanor C.. August 1, 1949. Counting with Geiger Counters. Review of Scientific Instruments. 20. 8. 568–572. 10.1063/1.1741618. 18134720. 0034-6748.
  17. Web site: Smith. Charles P. Jr.. Pressly. Eleanor C.. February 1954. Upper Atmosphere Research Report Number 21. Summary of Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Firings. Naval Research Laboratory . https://web.archive.org/web/20210710221348/https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADB957191.pdf . 10 July 2021 . live .
  18. John W. Townsend, Jr., Edith B. Meadows, Eleanor C. Pressly, "A Mass Spectrometric Study of the Upper Atmosphere", Rocket Exploration of the Upper Atmosphere, ed. by R. L. F. Boyd and M. Seaton, pp. 169·188, lnterscience Publishers, N.Y. (1954).
  19. Homer E. Newell, Jr., Eleanor Pressly, and John W. Townsend, Jr., "Future Sounding Rockets", Sounding Rockets, Chapter 17, ed. by H. E. Newell, Jr., McGraw-Hill Book Co., N.Y. (1958).
  20. James A. Van Allen, John W. Townsend, Jr., and Eleanor C. Pressly, "The Aerobee Rocket", Sounding Rockets, Chapter 4, ed. by H. E. Newell, Jr., McGraw-Hill Book Co., N.Y. (1958).
  21. News: Eleanor C. Pressly. May 12, 2003. The Washington Post. June 8, 2019.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eleanor C. Pressly".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.