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From Brooklyn to Los Angeles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Judith Love Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933. Her father was a soda salesman and her mother worked at her family\u2019s dress factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cohen was so adept at math from an early age that her classmates paid her to do their math homework. In junior high, she was the only girl in her math class. This was a trend that would continue for the rest of her career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her high school guidance counselor tried to dissuade her from pursuing math or science, telling her that she should go to finishing school instead. Cohen paid her no mind. She received a scholarship to Brooklyn College as a math major, but soon switched to engineering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While she attended college in Brooklyn, she also danced ballet in the Metropolitan Opera Ballet company. Aside from a brief pause to have her children, Cohen danced for her whole life. In the 1960s she switched from ballet to traditional folk dancing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cohen married her first husband when she was a college freshman. Their first child was born when she was twenty years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The young family moved to Los Angeles, California. Cohen worked full-time for North American Aviation while caring for three young children and attending night classes at the University of Southern California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Space Technology Laboratories <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When Cohen was starting out, less than one-half of one percent of all engineers were women<\/a>. Throughout the years that it took her to earn her Bachelor’s degree and then her Master\u2019s, she was the only female engineering student at USC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After earning her Master\u2019s, she served as a board member for USC\u2019s Astronautical Engineering Advisory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her eldest son describes her as \u201ca vigorous and tireless advocate of better treatment for women in the workplace\u201d who had \u201ca profound impact on equality in the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout her career of nearly forty years, Cohen worked as an engineer specializing in space technologies. She worked on the Relay System Satellite, which remained functional for nearly 40 years. She also led the team of engineers that designed the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her work on the Abort-Guidance System on the Apollo Lunar Module made it possible for astronauts to return safely after an oxygen tank explosion crippled Apollo 13. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Apollo 13 launched in April of 1970. It was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program. If it had been successful, it would have been the third mission of the Apollo space program to land on the moon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 11, Apollo 13 took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Two days later, it lost one of its oxygen tanks. The crew no longer had enough oxygen to complete their mission. Debris littered the space around the vessel, obscuring their view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ground crew directed the astronauts to power up the Apollo Lunar Module<\/a> and use it as a lifeboat to get back to Earth. A return path was charted to get them home, where they would splash down in the Indian Ocean four days later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Back on Earth, the mission was a media sensation. Regular television programming was interrupted for frequent updates. Pope Paul VI led 10,000 people in praying for the astronauts\u2019 safe return. 100,000 people offered up their prayers during a religious festival in India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The crew struggled with excess carbon dioxide, near-freezing temperatures, and lack of water on the journey home. In the end, they made it back alive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over 70 million people watched the live broadcast of the Apollo crew\u2019s return.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Apollo Lunar Module <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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