Melba Roy Mouton

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Melba Roy Mouton in the 1960s

Melba Roy Mouton ( 1929 in Fairfax, Virginia - June 25, 1990 in Silver Spring ) was an African American computer scientist who served in the 1960s as the Assistant Chief of Research Programs for NASA's trajectory and geodynamics department and a group at NASA -Mathematists called "Computer". She began her career as a mathematician, then became chief mathematician for the communications satellites Echo 1 and Echo 2, and worked her way up to her position as chief computer programmer and then head of program production at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

Mouton was born in Fairfax, Virginia in 1929 to Rhodie and Edna Chloe. In 1950 she graduated from Howard University with a Masters in Mathematics. She began working for NASA in 1959, having previously worked for the Army Map Service (AMS) and the United States Census Bureau (USCB). During her time at NASA, she not only oversaw the tracking of the echo satellites, but also contributed to seminars on the APL programming language and an article published by NASA on documentation of computer code . She was also featured prominently in an advertisement about NASA's Afro-American diversity , along with her other African-American counterparts. She received an Apollo Achievement Award and an Exceptional Performance Award from NASA . She retired in 1973.

Mouton had three children and was married twice, first to Wardell Roy and later to Webster Mouton. She died of a brain tumor on June 25, 1990 at the age of 61.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NASA : The Goddard General Orbit Determination System. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  2. ↑ NASA: Human Computer ( Memento from June 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ NASA: Melba Roy Mouton. In: Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  4. ↑ EXPERIMENTAL USE OF A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE (APL) AT THE GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER. In: NASA. 1968, Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  5. ^ Automated Methods of Computer Program Documentation. In: NASA. November 1970, Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  6. ↑ NASA Yes! We are Involved: A Diversified Team can get the Job Done. In: Afro American. April 15, 1972, Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  7. ^ Melba Roy Mouton . In: The Washington Post . June 29, 1990.
  8. ^ Reference to obituary. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Mouton, Melba Roy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Fairfax (Virginia)
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1990
Place of death Silver Spring