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(MUSIC)

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Billie Fitzgerald, former secretary to Dr. Kurt Debus, Kennedy Space Center's first center director: In later years, Wernher von Braun

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came down and had a meeting in that office, and I was taking the minutes,

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and right in the middle of the meeting, one of the engineers stopped the meeting and decided that I should

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be excused because, since I was a woman, I might go outside the room and tell what they were talking about.

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Well they were talking about von Braun going to Washington to try to get money to put a man on the moon.

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And of course Dr. Debus, as he always did, came to my defense. He was very protective.

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He always treated me like a daughter. I was very young then.

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So he treated me like a daughter, and it was kind of subtle that I would stay in there and take the minutes.

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I just looked at all of them and I said, "Hey if you think I'm going outside this room and tell anybody

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you're going to try to send a man to the moon, forget it! People would think I'm crazy."

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(MUSIC)

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Woman's voice: I made boxing gloves before I came here, and the fact is, I was an experienced sewer,

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but I had to learn all over again. Where I'd sewed before you just sewed on a

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production line, and this here is quality more than quantity.

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Narrator: Fifty years ago, America's space program was just beginning to lift off.

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At the same time, here on Earth, women across the country were boldly venturing into

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new territory by entering the workforce like never before.

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Male Voice: TM blockhouse what are your cameras and tape recorders at this time?

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Joyce Riquelme, Manager, Center Planning and Development Office: When I first started working out here,

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there weren't a lot of women in any sort of technical position. Most of the women were secretaries or clerks of some sort.

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When I first hired on, I was one woman, the only woman, in a group of 23 male

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engineers, and so it was a unique environment.

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Janet Karika, Director of Interagency Launch Programs: I look back on what it was like when I first came in,

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and the women that came before me, although I didn't know many of them I got to know them later,

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they pretty much had to be men. You couldn't be married, you couldn't have kids, and still do what you loved.

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They had to make some really tough choices to blaze those trails.

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Narrator: As NASA sent missions to the moon, launched the space shuttle and built the

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International Space Station, women were blazing new trails.

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Mike Curie, NASA Launch Commentator: And she's also very enthusiastic and ready to fly.

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Karika: Early on in my career, I mean, there were no female

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generals that had families or even were married, and that's changing now.

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Some of my girlfriends now are two and three star generals and some have families.

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Clara Wright, Materials Engineer: I mean, now we have women who are senior managers, so we have,

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I have, my generation has role models to look up to whereas maybe women before didn't.

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Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Chief, Processing and Operations Division: I look at during my career, Eileen

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Collins, first women pilot, four years later first women commander. Again another affirmation that

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whatever you want to do, it's possible if you commit to it.

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Launch Commentator: ...and lift off ...lift off of STS-7 and America's first woman astronaut. And the shuttle has cleared the tower.

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Narrator: The contributions and accomplishments of the women at Kennedy Space Center

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continued to make an indelible mark on American space flight.

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Curie: Kennedy Space Center native Nicole Stott, who worked here

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processing shuttles for many years before becoming an astronaut.

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Narrator: Now, the story of women rising into the professional ranks is interwoven into our nation's space legacy.

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Riquelme: Quite a lot has changed.

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Yeah, it's a very different place now than it was when I first began about 32 years ago here at KSC.

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Kimberlyn Carter, Chief, Business Office, Information Technology: Thank you for not giving up.

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Thank you for fighting and overcoming those obstacles that were, I believe, much

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more apparent and much harder than they are for me right now.

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Blackwell-Thompson: And so, when comes to what all's