In 1970, NASA’s Apollo 13 Mission nearly turned deadly. One woman’s invention saved lives. Her son became a Hollywood star

He is one of the most celebrated comedians in Hollywood, with plenty of accolades to his name, such as an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, etc. However, Jack Black’s mother, Judith Love Cohen, was not just a trailblazer but also a literal lifesaver. A brilliant aerospace engineer, Judith developed a guidance system which saved the lives of three NASA astronauts on the Apollo 13 rocket. One of her inventions – the Apollo Abort Guidance System, a backup computer system – played an important role in the safe return of the astronauts aboard Apollo 13 when a mishap occurred.

How One Woman Prevented A Tragedy

In 1970, after an oxygen tank explosion damaged the Service Module and forced the astronauts to utilise the Lunar Module as a "lifeboat", one of her innovations, the Apollo Abort Guidance System, a backup computer system, was crucial to Apollo 13's safe return. Water and electricity supplies were few on the LM, and the Primary Guidance and Navigation System consumed excessive amounts of water for cooling. Consequently, the AGS was used for the majority of the return, including two mid-course adjustments, after a large LM descent engine burnt two hours past its closest approach to the Moon to shorten the trip home.

Pregnant But Not Powerless

According to a post by the Australian Space Agency, Judith took a computer printout of a problem she was working on for the Apollo program to the hospital on August 28, 1969, while she was in labour. Actor Jack Black was born when she reportedly called her supervisor to get the solution after resolving the issue in between contractions.


Black is known for films such as Shallow Hal, Enemy Of The State etc.

A Son Remembers

One of Judith's sons, Neil Siegel, wrote about his mother's extraordinary life and career path for the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Judith was drawn to two very distinct professions from a young age: engineering and dancing. She was studying engineering at Brooklyn and performing with the New York Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company's Corps de Ballet at the age of just 19. She met Bernard Siegel during her first year of college, who would go on to become Neil's father and her first husband.

The next ten years were devoted to education, job, and family. Judith raised her first three children, Neil, Howard, and Rachel, while working as an engineer full-time and going to college. In the end, she graduated from USC with a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering.

A Remarkable Career

Early in the 1990s, Judith quit her engineering job, but retirement soon led to a new phase of her life. In order to inspire girls between the ages of eight and ten to think about engineering as a career, she developed a children's book. Judith and David founded their own publishing company after failing to find a publisher.

Eventually, the project grew into a larger book series with the goal of inspiring young females to pursue careers. Careers in astronomy, architecture, and a number of other fields were featured in the series. Later, Judith conducted hundreds of readings and seminars, sold over 100,000 copies, and produced instructional kits that made it possible for others to plan similar events.

Judith died in 2016 at the age of 82, leaving behind a legacy that combined engineering, education, creativity, and advocacy for young women.

NASA Employees Continued To Make Innovations To Protect People From Fire & Explosions

Judith Love Cohen was far from the only employee at NASA to have come up with innovations to help people from explosions and fire-related mishaps. Over the years, NASA has developed and adapted several technologies that have found important applications in firefighting, helping emergency crews deal with extreme heat, poor visibility and dangerous wildfires and explosions.

One noteworthy example came from a partnership that started in the late 1990s between NASA and the Houston Fire Department. Firefighters were still wearing helmets at the time, which had essentially not altered in almost a century.

HowStuffWorks reports that Houston firefighters visited a NASA facility to investigate the possibility of utilising space-age technologies to enhance their protective gear. What started out as a discussion about developing a more sophisticated helmet eventually grew into a far bigger endeavour to reconsider the firefighter's complete protective gear. By 2000, Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Department of Defence, the Houston Fire Department, and NASA had collaborated to build a new suit.

An active cooling system was one of the suit's most significant advancements. In order to help firefighters deal with the extreme heat they experience when working inside burning structures, the device circulates liquid through the protective gear. This development raised the suit's maximum temperature tolerance ranges from around 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or 149 degrees Celsius, to about 500 degrees Fahrenheit, or 260 degrees Celsius. Because excessive body heat may be extremely dangerous for firefighters—sometimes even more dangerous than smoke or flames themselves—the improvement was particularly noteworthy.

Another significant safety advantage is provided by the cooling system. It can lessen the risk of a hazardous explosion by assisting in maintaining a lower temperature near the firefighter's oxygen supply.

NASA technology also addressed another longstanding problem: visibility. Thick smoke and steam can make it extremely difficult for firefighters to navigate burning buildings or locate people trapped inside. Infrared imaging incorporated into the helmet allows firefighters to detect heat sources and identify the hottest areas even when ordinary vision is severely restricted. This can help crews reach victims sooner, target dangerous areas more effectively and reduce the amount of time they must remain inside hazardous structures.

Later, NASA focused on using space to monitor wildfires. The organization created satellite software in 2003 that could detect potential forest fires over wide regions. When a suspicious hotspot was identified by one satellite, the system could guide another satellite with more powerful imaging capabilities to investigate it further.

NASA's Ikhana, a modified Predator B drone with advanced remote-sensing equipment in place of armaments, is another example. Ikhana helped authorities during the enormous Zaca Fire in California in 2007. By flying above the fire and mapping its perimeter, the unmanned aircraft were able to gather important information about places that were difficult for conventional aircraft to see due to heavy smoke. These innovations showed how NASA's knowledge of harsh conditions may be turned into useful instruments for defending towns and firefighters on