Mrs. Marjorie R. Townsend

Foil: 26 Panel: 3 Column: 2 Line: 28

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:

PROFILE: First woman to be graduated from The George Washington University School of Engineering (Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, 1951).

First woman spacecraft Project Manager in NASA (Small Astronomy Satellites: 1966-1975).
SAS-1, Uhuru, launched 12/12/70, was the first X-ray satellite; SAS-2, launched 11/15/72, carried a gamma-ray spark chamber; and SAS-3, launched 5/7/75, carried MIT X-ray instruments. Uhuru was the first U.S. satellite to be launched from outside the United States and the first to be launched for the U.S. by a foreign country (Italy, from their San Marco launch platform off the coast of Kenya). SAS-2 and SAS-3 were also launched from the San Marco platform; all three by an American Scout rocket.

Patent: Digital Telemetry System, Patent No. 3,380,042, dated 4/23/68
At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center from 1959-1980, she was first responsible for the ground processing equipment for the medium resolution infrared equipment on the TIROS weather satellites; then for flight instrumentation for Nimbus and the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (1959-1965); coordinated users for the Nimbus Interrogation, Recording and Location System (1965-1966); served as Project Manager for SAS (1966-1975) and then for the Applications Explorer Missions (1975-1976); and, finally, she served as Manager of the Preliminary Systems Design Group, which was responsible for studies for all of GSFC's future space science and terrestrial applications missions and their associated ground systems (1976-1980).

Author of ~30 papers
NASA television show: "The Woman's Touch" NASA movie: "Beyond Our Sun"
Major awards among ~20: NASA Eye-of-the-Needle Award (1991); NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (1980); General Alumni Association Achievement Award, The George Washington University (1976); Engineer Alumni Association Achievement Award, The George Washington University (1975); Award for Culture, Association EUR, Rome (1974); Federal Woman's Award (1973); Knight of the Italian Republic Order (1972); NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1971)

Organizations: Life Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington Academy of Sciences (WAS); Member, International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), American Geophysical Union (AGU), Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Wing of the Aerospace Medical Association (Honorary); Sigma Delta Epsilon/Graduate Women in Science, Inc. (Honorary)

Major Biographical Listings among ~28: Marquis Who's Who in America; Marquis Who's Who in Frontier Science and Technology -1st Edition