needs to know is there a problem? if so, i need to tell the right people in the test team. >> so how did you end up the only woman in the firing room during the launch of apollo 11? >> my director of information systems called me in. he said, you're our best communicator. we're going to have you on the console. later i found out he had to go and convince the center director, dr. kurt beebus, that it was going to be okay. >> do you think it had to go all the way to the top for the men that were in the firing room? >> oh, heck no. >> >> growing up she had a love for science and learning. >> she was an insatiable reader. she skipped the first grade. she would not want a doll for christmas. she would much rather have a chemistry set or an erector set or something she could build or do. >> at 17, she interned at the u.s. army ballistic missile