Ivy Hooks
Ivy Fay Hooks is an American mathematician and engineer who worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She joined NASA after graduating from the University of Houston with a master's degree in mathematics and physics in 1965. Her first assignment was with the Apollo program, where she worked on the modeling of lighting on the Moon and the dynamics of the launch escape system, among other projects. She then went on to play an important role in the design and development of the Space Shuttle, being one of only two women engineers assigned to the original design team for the orbiter.
Early life and education
Ivy Fay Hooks was born in Houston, Texas, on November 17, 1941, and grew up in Livingston, Texas. She was named after Ivy Parker, one of the founding members of the Society of Women Engineers, and a close friend of her parents. She graduated from Livingston [Independent School District|Livingston High School] and entered Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, where she studied mathematics. In June after her first year, she got married, and moved to Lufkin, Texas, where her husband was a reporter for a local newspaper. She then went to Austin College. She entered the University of Houston in her junior year. There, she also became interested in physics. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics in 1963.NASA career
Project Apollo
Jobs for women with mathematics degrees were not common in the early 1960s, and she did not want to become a teacher, so she went to graduate school, where she worked towards her master's degree. A friend's mother drew her attention to an article in the newspaper that said "NASA's looking for women scientists and engineers." When she went for an interview at the Manned Spaceflight Center, she was unimpressed with the building, which was a disused box factory with no windows, and the people, who she thought were strange. However, she met a woman whose husband worked at NASA and was looking for people. A second interview was arranged, and this job was more to her liking. She was hired as an "aerospace technologist", which annoyed some of the engineers who had the same job classification.Hook's first assignment was modeling lighting on the Moon. This was of great importance at the time, as it was vital to know what the view would look like when astronauts attempted to land the lunar module. Most engineers were not much interested; it was not something on the college syllabus. She found that the subject had been researched by Russian physicists in the 1920s, who were interested in the lunar albedo, and they had created a full mathematical treatment of the subject. There were very few women working for NASA at the time in technical roles, and the men often played cruel practical jokes. She became fed up with the behavior of two of the men in her group, and decided to switch to another. She went to work for Humboldt C. Mandell, Jr., who was working on developing cost models. These were projections far into the future. She returned to the University of Houston, where she completed her studies, and was awarded a Master of Science degree in mathematics in 1965.
Hooks studied the dynamics of the launch escape system, and the effects of jet plumes coming from the Lunar Module's ascent propulsion system and descent propulsion system. She also investigated the dynamics of the Apollo flight systems.