0:00 You know, some evenings I sit out here and watch the satellites crawl across the sky.0:07 Little pinpricks of light.0:09 And you think, my goodness, what does it take to get a thing like that all the way up yonder?0:16 Ey up, Earl.0:17 It takes a right smart bit of something, I'll tell you that for nowt.0:23 A big firework and a lot of clever clogs doing their sums.0:28 It does.0:29 And last week, we talked about folks who did the hard part but didn't get their name in the paper, like Claudette Colvin.0:39 Well, friend, I got another one for you.0:42 A story that starts with the whole country lookin' up at the sky and seein'...0:48 nothin'.0:49 Oh?0:49 Go on then, love.0:51 I've got my brew.0:52 I'm all ears.0:53 Alright.0:54 So it's 1957.0:55 The Russians have just sent up that little beepin' ball, Sputnik.1:00 And America is in a flat-out panic.1:03 We're supposed to be leading the world, and we can't even get a machine into orbit.1:10 Ooh, I remember the fuss about that!1:13 Yes.1:13 Everyone thought the sky was about to fall in.1:17 That's it exactly.1:19 Now, we had this fella, a German rocket scientist named Wernher von Braun.1:25 Famous as they come.1:26 He had a rocket, the Jupiter-C.1:29 A good one.1:30 But it was like a fishin' line that was just a few feet too short to reach the deep water.1:37 His team could get it ninety-three percent of the way to orbit.1:43 But ninety-three percent is the same as zero.1:46 So close, but no cigar, as you Yanks say.1:50 They were stuck.1:51 Stuck solid.1:52 They couldn't change the engine—no time for that.1:56 They needed more push from the same machine.2:00 It's like needing a locomotive to pull ten more cars, but you can't make the boiler any bigger.2:08 The problem goes to this one division, Rocketdyne.2:12 Nine hundred engineers.2:14 And one...2:14 ONE woman.2:15 There's always one, isn't there?2:18 The one who has to get it all sorted.2:21 Her name was Mary Sherman Morgan.2:24 And Bridget, I tell you what, her story is something else.2:28 She grew up on a farm in North Dakota, so poor she didn't even go to school 'til she was nine.2:36 Nine?2:37 Bless her heart.2:38 And she ended up with nine hundred engineers?2:42 How on earth did she manage that?2:44 She just had the gift.2:46 She wanted to be a chemist.2:49 Left college without a degree, but during the war she got a job makin' explosives.2:55 Turns out, she was real good at figuring out what makes things go boom.3:01 So good that Rocketdyne hired her and made her a Theoretical Performance Specialist.3:08 A what-now?3:09 Sounds very grand.3:11 It means she was the one who did the math on the fuel.3:15 While all those fellas were building the big metal parts, her job was to figure out the juice that made it go.3:24 And now, the whole country's reputation is sitting on her desk.3:29 The bosses come to her and say, "Mary, we need a brand-new fuel.3:35 Something with more power than alcohol, but it can't melt Herr von Braun's engine." Good heavens.3:43 No pressure then, love.3:45 Just invent summat that's never existed before, and do it before teatime.3:51 That's about the size of it.3:53 She's working with these hydrazine compounds—nasty, toxic stuff that wants to explode if you look at it sideways.4:02 And she's the only one doing it.4:05 She's got no team.4:06 Just her, her brain, and her calculations.4:10 The quietest person in the room, doing the most important job.4:15 I've seen that in my time.4:17 They're the ones you've got to watch.4:20 So...4:21 did she do it?4:22 After months of work, she comes up with a new recipe.4:26 A blend of two chemicals.4:28 They called it Hydyne.4:30 And when they tested it...4:32 it gave them the extra twelve percent of power they needed.4:37 It was the missing piece.4:39 The thing that got the line out into the deep water.4:43 Ooh!4:44 She did it!4:45 The lass from the farm with no degree!4:48 Oh, that's brilliant, that is!4:50 On January thirty-first, 1958, they put her fuel in that Jupiter-C rocket, stuck a satellite called Explorer 1 on top, and lit the fuse.5:02 And it went all the way.5:04 America was finally in space.5:06 And I bet Wernher von Braun was all over the telly, smiling and taking the credit.5:13 Like he'd invented gravity.5:15 And Mary Sherman Morgan?5:17 Her name was nowhere.5:19 Her work was classified.5:21 Buried.5:21 She was a quiet person, you know, didn't seek the limelight.5:26 And in those days...5:28 well.5:28 A woman in that world was invisible.5:31 Mm-hmm.5:32 They take your work, but they don't take your picture.5:36 A tale as old as time, that is.5:39 Swear on my tackle box, that is the honest truth.5:43 For decades, nobody knew.5:45 It wasn't until her own son, George, started digging around after she passed away.5:52 He found all these old papers, letters from colleagues praising her work on Hydyne.5:59 He's the one who put the story together and wrote a book about his mam.6:05 Called it "Rocket Girl." Aww, that's a lovely thing for a son to do.6:10 Making sure his mam got her due.6:13 So her story didn't get lost forever.6:16 He made sure of it.6:18 And it just goes to show you.6:20 Sometimes the biggest things...6:22 the things that change the whole world...6:26 they don't come from the fella makin' all the noise at the front of the depot.6:32 They come from the quiet one in the back, the one just makin' sure the engine has the right fuel to make the grade.6:42 Well, here's to Mary Sherman Morgan.6:45 The Rocket Girl.6:46 Right then, Earl.6:48 That was a grand story.6:49 Night night, sleep tight, chuck.6:52 Night now, Bridget.6:54 Well.6:54 That is about the size of it.
