Luxurylatte's Block

vintageblackglamour:

Melba Roy, NASA Mathmetician, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland in 1964. Ms. Roy, a 1950 graduate of Howard University, led a group of NASA mathmeticians known as “computers” who tracked the Echo satellites. The first time I shared Ms. Roy on VBG, my friend Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a former postdoc in astrophysics at NASA, helpfully explained what Ms. Roy did in the comment section. I am sharing Chanda’s comment again here: “By the way, since I am a physicist, I might as well explain a little bit about what she did: when we launch satellites into orbit, there are a lot of things to keep track of. We have to ensure that gravitational pull from other bodies, such as other satellites, the moon, etc. don’t perturb and destabilize the orbit. These are extremely hard calculations to do even today, even with a machine-computer. So, what she did was extremely intense, difficult work. The goal of the work, in addition to ensuring satellites remained in a stable orbit, was to know where everything was at all times. So they had to be able to calculate with a high level of accuracy. Anyway, that’s the story behind orbital element timetables”. Photo: NASA/Corbis.

Wisdom…

hollyhocksandtulips:

“The Silencers”, Matt Helm, 1966

Yes…

vintageblackglamour:

Diana Ross, in a custom satin tuxedo designed by Bob Mackie and his partner, Ray Aghayan, at the Academy Awards on March 27, 1973. Ms. Ross, a Best Actress nominee that year for her role in “Lady Sings the Blues” is flanked by her then husband, Robert Silberstein, and her parents, Ernestine and Fred Ross, Sr. Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage.

Everything…

vintageblackglamour:

Diahann Carroll with designers Bob Mackie and Ray Aghayan as they make adjustments on the cape and dress she wore for the 1975 Academy Awards. Ms. Carroll was nominated in the Best Actress category for her role in the film, “Claudine.” Photo: Isaac Sutton for EBONY.