Most women head to the hospital delivery room with a bag full of clothes and comfort items. In 1969, Judith Love Cohen arrived with a stack of complex computer printouts. She was deep in the throes of active labour, yet she refused to put her work down. She was an aerospace engineer in the middle of a critical calculation, and the pain of childbirth did not stop her. Between powerful contractions, she worked through the math until she found the answer. She called her boss to report that the problem was solved. Then she calmly added that her baby had arrived as well. That baby grew up to become the famous actor Jack Black.
Yes, the famous actor and musician from School of Rock. While the world knows him for his comedy, his mother was a serious genius. She was the engineer who helped bring the Apollo 13 crew home safely.
More Than Just a Lady
Judith’s life was unusual from the very start. She was born in Brooklyn in 1933. While other children played hopscotch, she fell in love with numbers. Her father saw her talent and taught her geometry using simple objects like ashtrays. By the time she reached fifth grade, she was already making money by doing math homework for her classmates.
However, the world in the 1950s did not welcome female engineers. When she told her guidance counsellor about her dream to study math, the man gave her terrible advice. He told her to forget about it and learn to be a lady instead. Judith ignored him. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. She decided to do things that other girls did not do.
She went to college to study math, but she also had another passion. She loved to dance. She joined the New York Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company. For a while, she lived a double life. She danced in the ballet and studied engineering equations. She refused to pick just one dream.
The Only Woman in the Room
Judith eventually moved to California and transferred to the University of Southern California. She finished her degree in 1957. The statistics from that time are shocking. She was one of only eight women in a graduating class of 800. In the entire United States, less than one percent of engineers were women.
When she started her job at North American Aviation, the men in the office did not know what to make of her. They often assumed she was a secretary. But Judith belonged there just as much as they did. She worked on huge projects. She helped build the guidance computer for the Minuteman missile. She worked on the ground systems for the Hubble Space Telescope. But her most critical work involved the Apollo space program.
The Disaster in Deep Space
The real test of Judith’s work came in April 1970. NASA launched Apollo 13 with three astronauts on board. Everyone expected a smooth mission to the moon. But two days after launch, an oxygen tank exploded. The explosion crippled the main ship. The astronauts, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, were in serious trouble. They were 200,000 miles from Earth and losing power fast.
The crew had to shut down the main computer to save water and electricity. They were flying blind in a damaged ship. This is where Judith came in. She helped design a backup system called the Abort Guidance System. It was a safety net that nobody wanted to use. But now, it was the only thing keeping the men alive.
The astronauts used Judith’s system to calculate their path home. It worked perfectly. It helped them fire the engine at the exact right moment to head back to Earth. Judith’s calculations brought them home. When the astronauts returned, they went to the engineering facility to thank the team personally. Judith was there to receive their gratitude.
Inspiring the Next Generation
Judith retired from engineering in 1990, but she never stopped working. She wanted to fix the problem she faced as a young girl. She wanted girls to see that they could be scientists too. She started a publishing company and wrote books like You Can Be a Woman Engineer.
She believed that girls needed to see real women in these jobs to believe it was possible. She spent the rest of her life visiting schools and teaching young people. Her son, Jack Black, later said his mother was the smartest and most tenacious person he ever knew.
Judith Love Cohen proved everyone wrong. She defied the counsellor who told her to be a lady. She defied the odds in a male-dominated field. And she defied the limits of human endurance by solving rocket science while giving birth. She showed the world that a woman could be a mother, a dancer, and a hero all at the same time.
