Summary

In Chapter 16, What a Difference a Day Makes, Americans were watching the sky wondering about the Russian satellite. Americans also felt humiliated by lagging behind the Russians.

Katherine Goble and her colleagues saw Sputnik as the next step for Langley. In the past, they had been admonished by congress not to spend time and money on spaceflight. Now, they were being pressured to find the fastest way to get to space. The Pilotless Aircraft Research Division, PARD, had been working with rockets and were confident they could get a satellite with a human passenger into space. Katherine and her colleagues in the Flight Research Division worked with PARD on the spaceflight effort.

Dorothy Vaughan’s West Computers now worked on the fringes of the important work being done. There were now more black women working in other areas than in West Computing because...