The Rocket Chemist: Mary Sherman Morgan

The Rocket Chemist: The Woman Who Fueled America's First Satellite

October 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, plunging America into crisis. The nation's pride, and its place in the world, depended on one mission: launching a satellite before the year ended. The problem? The rocket needed more power than its existing fuel could provide.

The task of finding the chemical solution-one that required a leap in rocket science but fit within existing engine hardware-fell to a single individual working in a high-security lab: Mary Sherman Morgan.

Born in rural North Dakota, Morgan was the only woman chemist at North American Aviation's Rocketdyne division. Working under unimaginable pressure, she swiftly formulated Hydyne (H-5), a potent, high-energy fuel mixture. It was the crucial, necessary edge. On January 31, 1958, the Jupiter-C rocket-fueled by Morgan's invention-launched Explorer 1, placing the first American satellite in orbit and successfully thrusting the United States back into the space race. Approx.174 pages, 34100 word count