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SPACE NOWHistory

The past behind what's next.

Person

Annie Easley

She started as a human computer — a person paid to do the arithmetic — and became a programmer whose code supported the Centaur upper stage that still launches missions to other planets.

  • Revision: 1
  • Dates: 1955-01-01 to 2011-06-25 (day precision)
  • Last reviewed: 2026-08-14
  • Status: 34-year career; inducted into the Glenn Research Center Hall of Fame
  • Also known as Annie J. Easley

Orientation

Role: Human computer, then computer scientist and programmer; later equal employment opportunity counsellor

Operator or programme: NACA, then NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center

Geography: Cleveland, Ohio

Historic state: Joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NASA's predecessor. The historic name is kept alongside the modern one; neither replaces the other.

Chronology

  1. day precisionAnnie Easley enters the record.

Related records

  • contemporary with

    What was being computed by hand while the first Americans orbited?

    Confidence: high · 1962-02-20 (day precision)

  • contemporary with

    Who else was writing the code that flew?

    Confidence: high · 1969-07-20 (day precision)

  • relates to

    From arithmetic by hand to software that flew.

    Confidence: high · 1955-01-01 (year precision)

Inspect the record2 assertions, each with its source

  • Annie Easley began at NACA in 1955 as a human computer performing complex mathematical calculations, and when human computers were replaced by machines she became a computer programmer using Fortran and SOAP, over a career spanning 34 years.

    Source class: space agency recordNASA — Annie Easley, Computer ScientistView the source

  • She developed and implemented code used in researching energy-conversion systems and alternative power technology, and for the Centaur upper-stage rocket; her contributions to Centaur framed technological foundations for later launches including Cassini in 1997.

    Source class: space agency recordNASA — Annie Easley, Computer ScientistView the source

CorrectionsNone recorded

No corrections recordedThis record has not been corrected since it was published.