((PKG)) NANCY GRACE ROMAN -- PIA
((Banner: An Eye in the Sky))
((Executive Producer: Marsha James))
((Camera: Kaveh Rezaei))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((Nancy Grace Roman, Mother of the Hubble Telescope))
Well, I think science is very important in today's society. Much of our modern life depends on science and the background that science gives to engineering. The engineers trying to find out how. A scientist needs to find out why. We wouldn't have cell phones. We wouldn't even have refrigerators without basic science.
My name is Nancy Grace Roman and I'm known as the mother of a Hubble.
I have no idea how I became interested in astronomy. Most children are interested in astronomy between the ages of 10 and 12 and I never outgrew it. I wanted to know what stars were like, how they behaved and what astronomy was all about.
In my junior year, I went to my high school guidance teacher and asked for permission to take a second year of algebra instead of a fifth year of Latin. She looked down her nose at me and sneered, “what lady would take mathematics instead of Latin?” That was a general attitude towards women going into science. In spite of that, I made up my mind in seventh grade that I was going to be an astronomer.
((Photo Courtesy: Nancy Grace Roman))
It was about six months after NASA was formed that I was asked to set up the program in space astronomy or really I was not asked. I was asked if I knew anybody who would do it. I took that as an indication that they were asking me, and that was more than 50 years ago. And I think that parts of my program are still influencing astronomy.
One of the ways that astronomers study objects is to spread the light out into a rainbow. And that rainbow has lines which tell you what the object was made of, how hot it is, how dense it is. And it also tells you how fast the object is moving towards you or away from you. That was the main reason for the Hubble and why it was called the Hubble. However, it was used for all an awful lot of different purposes. It was used to study the planets, and particularly Jupiter and Saturn. It was used to study very distant objects such as galaxies, and it was used for studying almost everything in between. For the first 17 years I worked at NASA, I found out later that I was the highest woman in the organization. After that, NASA really made a major effort to hire women in senior positions. I'm not sure how I feel about being called the mother of the Hubble. I feel somewhat uncomfortable about it, I have to admit. I feel it's an honor and I'm not sure it isn’t justified. On the other hand, there were a lot of other people involved in getting the Hubble up and working also.
I will be remembered for the Hubble I'm sure. But I guess I would rather be remembered as a successful person and as a good human being.
