We are watching the inspirational journey of the Mars rover today. Good luck, Perseverance! Black History at our neighbor, NASA Goddard,
includes a brilliant leader named Melba L.C. Moore.
Melba L.C. Roy was a mathematician and the program production section chief at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt. She earned the nickname “the human computer.” Her team of mathematicians designed large-scale computer programs for spacecraft orbits. She was a graduate of Howard University, and won the both the Apollo Achievement Award and the NASA Exceptional Performance Award.
She was also featured in Ebony magazine in 1965. Ebony magazine published 57 profiles of African Americans in electronics and computing in the second half of the 20th Century.