Melba Roy Mouton

Melba Roy Mouton was an American mathematician who served as Assistant Chief of Research Programs in NASA's Trajectory and Geodynamics Division during the 1960s, where she headed a group of NASA mathematicians known internally as computers. Following the 1960 orbital launch of the Echo 1 satellite, Mouton served as head mathematician responsible for tracking the trajectories of Echo 1 and its successor Echo 2, work that required her group to calculate and continuously refine the satellites' predicted orbital paths from tracking data. Her career at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center progressed through further leadership roles, including Head Computer Programmer and later Program Production Section Chief, where she also contributed to programming documentation and training standards, before she retired from the agency in 1973.