Background
Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes was born on March 12, 1930 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. Daughter of Lewis Boling and Marjorie Olive (Trees) Rhodes.
Aerospace engineer engineering executive
Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes was born on March 12, 1930 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. Daughter of Lewis Boling and Marjorie Olive (Trees) Rhodes.
At age 15 she started college, and was the first woman to earn an engineering degree from George Washington University when she graduated in 1951.
Early in her career, Townsend worked for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and at the Naval Research Laboratory. She joined National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1959. Her early work there involved weather satellites such as TIROS-1 and Nimbus.
In time she was the first woman to become a spacecraft project manager at Goddard Spaceflight Center, responsible for Uhuru, the first satellite designed for x-ray astronomy.
lieutenant was also the first American spacecraft to be launched from outside the United States, in 1970. Townsend worked with Bruno Rossi and Nobel laureate Riccardo Giacconi on the Small Astronomy Satellite program, and went to Kenya when Uhuru was launched by the Italian space program from the San Marco platform there.
After that, she served as director of space systems engineering for Business Development Manager International, and was vice president at Space America. She retired from her private-sector work in 1996.
Townsend was co-inventor of a digital telemetry system, patented in 1968, which was part of the Nimbus program weather satellite.
Marjorie Rhodes married Charles East. Townsend Senior, a medical student, in 1948. The couple had four sons together, and lived in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington District of Columbia. Marjorie was widowed in 2001. The Marjorie Rhodes Townsend Papers are held in the Special Collections library at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Fellow Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (chairman Washington section 1974-1975), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (chairman national capitol section 1985), American Association for the Advancement of Science (council delegate 1985-1988), Washington Academy of Sciences (president 1980-1981). Member International Academy Astronautics, American Geophysical Union, Society Women Engineers, Wing of Aerospace Medical Association, Inc. (honorary), George Washington University School Engineering Applied Science Hall Fame (charter member), Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters Colonial Wars, Mensa, Sigma Kappa, Sigma Delta Epsilon (honorary).
Married Charles Eby Townsend, June 7, 1948. Children: Charles Eby Junior, Lewis Rhodes, John Cunningham, Richard Leo.