Frances “Poppy” Northcutt at work in the Mission Planning and Analysis room at NASA’s Mission Control (Houston) during the Apollo program, circa 1968.

The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 came and went in a blaze of nostalgia for the moment when humans made their first awkward footfall on another world–a moment when (for the true believers, at least) it seemed like humans might keep going and start exploring the whole solar system in person. But Apollo was about much more than Apollo 11, and