Her school counselor had recommended that she become a librarian, and she was expelled after three interviews with a gun manufacturer who preferred to hire a man. However, the American Virginia Norwood has become one of the pioneers of the aerospace industry. She died on March 26 at the age of 96, NASA announced in a statement.
Virginia Norwood played a founding role in the Landsat program. These satellites that move at a speed of 700 km/h around the Earth and that capture a complete image of our planet every 16 days, for more than 50 years. The Landsat program has very accurately mapped the consequences of climate change.
In the late 1960s, NASA and the Geological Survey teamed up to send satellites into space to take pictures to monitor Earth’s resources. Virginia Norwood, then employed by the Hughes Aircraft Company, will design a multispectral scanner, an essential part of capturing images that can be used from space. The first Landsat was launched into space on July 23, 1972.
Two days later, the satellite returned the first images of the Ouachita Mountains in Oklahoma. The results are considered astounding.
Woman in a man’s environment
Virginia Norwood was primarily responsible for the design and promotion of the project. She was a pioneer, especially as a woman in her field, she said in a video released by NASA, “to be known as the person who can solve impossible problems.” From an early age, his military father encouraged him to study mathematics and physics.
During an interview at Sikorsky Aircraft, he asked for a salary corresponding to the lowest earnings in the civil service. A request, however, rejected by the company, which did not wish to pay a woman of this level, however modest she was.
In the 1980s, he oversaw the development of Landsat 2, 3, 4, and 5. Versions 8 and 9 are currently in orbit around Earth, and NASA plans to launch Landsat 10 in 2030. In November 2021, the US Geological Survey awarded him its John Wesley Powell Award.
multiple tributes
Tributes were paid to her at the announcement of her death, including from climatologist Claire Parkinson: “It is wonderful that as she nears the end of her life, Virginia has seen her work honored in so many ways.”
NASA paid tribute to her in a tweet: “We are saddened by the passing of Virginia Norwood, known to many as the ‘Mother of Landsat.’ Virginia Norwood’s ingenuity made the first Landsat mission possible, and her legacy lives on for 50 years in this program for the people who work there.
Source: BFM TV
