![]() In addition, the position held prestige, allowed her to work alongside her husband, and paid twice what she made as a typist. She would always feel more at home with a pencil in her hand than at a typewriter. It was a job she hadn’t expected, yet one she was eminently qualified for. If she accepted, Barby would once again be the only woman in a group of men. She and Richard would be leaving good jobs to work for men who were not known for their reliability. She wondered if she could depend on the longevity of the reckless group. Barby knew the job would be far from a sure thing. Knowing they would need skilled mathematicians, Frank approached his two friends, Barbara (Barby) and Richard Canright. The risky project was the beginning of what would become the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Their goal was clear: Develop a rocket plane. In deference to the Army Air Corps, which had proposed the funding, they changed their name to the Air Corps Jet Propulsion Research Project. government’s first investment in rocket research. When they were awarded a second grant the next year for ten times as much, it was life-changing. ![]() ![]() That first award, $1,000, rescued the group, bringing them back together. Until then, the group, comprised of Frank Malina, Jack Parsons, and Ed Forman, had no way to fund the rockets they were working on, and was on the verge of disbanding. In 1939, the National Academy of Sciences awarded a grant to the Suicide Squad, a group of three students experimenting with rockets at Caltech, now more formally known as the GALCIT (Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology) Rocket Research Project. ![]()
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