Annie Easley worked for NASA Lewis Research Center, known as the Glenn Research Center of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.She was also a leading member of NASA’s predecessor-the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as she worked there. Under her leadership at the NASA space program, she impacted the world by helping develop software for the Centaur rocket stage.Annie Easley grew up and was raised by a single mother who had faith and confidence in her daughter. She always motivated Annie and told her that she could do anything as long as she worked for it. Annie also had an older brother. She got married to a US military soldier in 1954 and then moved to Cleveland, Ohio. She became interested in NACA after reading news regarding twin sisters who worked as human computers in a Cleveland newspaper. This is when she got inspired and applied for the role of mathematician at NASA.Annie Easley was the founding member as well as the president of the NASA Lewis Ski Club. She started skiing at the age of 46 and skied in Europe, Colorado, and Canada. Annie Easley also helped train African-Americans in taking the voting test in Alabama State, which was her home before the ’60s civil rights laws. During her initial days at NACA, Annie worked as a mathematician. She also worked towards the launching of a shuttle that was used to measure ozone energy destruction. This program contributed a lot to designing and testing the NASA nuclear energy reactor.Annie J Easley passed away when she was 78 years old on June 25, 2011. Easley, a well-known computer scientist, has inspired many people to go after what they want and has made a great contribution to computer science. She implemented and developed computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies.If you like this article, you could also read our other facts articles on Annie Edson Taylor facts and Ambrose Bierce facts here on Kidadl.Fun Facts About Annie EasleyAnnie Easley started her work in NASA when it was called National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. She initially started her pharmacy studies at Xavier University in New Orleans and gained a good education but later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, dropped her studies, and married a US military officer.As of February 1, 2021, the IAU named a crater on the moon after rocket scientist Annie Easley.At a very young age, Annie had shown active interest in becoming a nurse. When she hit 16, though, Annie had made up her mind to study pharmacy.She began studying pharmacy at Xavier University, New Orleans but dropped out when she married and moved to Cleveland. To her misfortune, the university in Cleveland had just closed its pharmacy program. She now had to look for a different career that suited her. When things were spiraling for Annie, an interesting article about a pair of twin sisters who worked as ‘human computers’ at NACA in one Cleveland newspaper caught her eye.This was Annie’s chance, and she quickly applied away, and her life took on a path that she had always dreamed about. After applying for the mathematician post at NASA, Easley was hired within two weeks.Annie worked at NASA before it was even called NASA. Back then, it was called NACA — National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.While she was still working in 1977, she went back to Cleveland State University to pursue a degree in mathematics.She was most known for being a human-computer, performing complex math calculations in the fields of Combinatorics, analysis, geometry, and more.Facts About Annie Easley’s ContributionsAs a computer scientist, Annie Easley worked for NASA Lewis Research Center, which is now known as the Glenn Research Center of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.Annie Easley also helped train African-Americans in the voting test in Alabama State, which was her home before the ’60s Civil Rights laws. She also worked as a teacher at Jefferson County in Alabama. She taught several African-Americans to vote.Annie Easley also worked as an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor at NASA, where she helped solve gender, age, and racial inequality complaints presented by NASA employees.Some of Easley’s work in science includes her working towards the launching of a shuttle that was used to measure ozone energy destruction. This program contributed a lot to designing and testing the NASA nuclear energy reactor.She was also a part of the program that developed the Centaur rocket that used a unique fuel system, one of the greatest achievements of NASA. Annie J Easley implemented and developed computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies. She also supported the Centaur high-energy upper rocket stage and the energy technology dealing with solar, wind, and energy projects and alternative systems to solve energy problems.Annie Easley’s work with the famous Centaur project helped lay technological foundations for all future launches of communication, weather and military satellites, and all space shuttle launches.Her work on the Centaur technology at NASA (a high-energy rocket technology that uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to boost rockets into space) also contributed to the 1997 space flight to Saturn of the Cassini probe.Annie did not write a book. However, she has a book written on her.Facts About Annie Easley’s EducationAnnie J Easley was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, where she pursued nursing from a local university and later opted for pharmacy during her college career days. Annie Easley started her work in NASA when it was called National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).She initially started her pharmacy studies at Xavier University which was then an African-American Roman Catholic University. In 1970, she again went back to Cleveland State University to complete her degree in mathematics.Annie also learned a few computer programming languages like Formula Translating System (Fortran) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). She became a well-known computer engineer and developed software code for the computational sector of NASA, which was used in researching energy conversion systems.Facts About Annie Easley’s StruggleAnnie did not have a college degree, yet she excelled in life so much it was all due to her compelling work ethic. She taught several African American people to vote despite the literacy tests aiming to exclude them from voting.Easley was quoted to have been denied financial aid by NASA, which other employees received for additional college courses.Annie was shocked to find that she was cropped out of all NASA promotional photos when they came out.Later in her career, Annie learned computer skills and other things related to computer science after NASA began to advance to electronic computers. She was one of the four only African-American employees in the computational section at NASA.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 61 Annie Easley facts: get inspired to achieve more academically then why not take a look at Anne Hutchinson facts or Antoni Gaudi facts.
Annie Easley worked for NASA Lewis Research Center, known as the Glenn Research Center of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
