![]() West admits that she had no idea, at the time, when she was recording satellite locations and doing accompanying calculations-that her work would affect so many. West’s humble nature actually kept people from knowing how instrumental she was in the development of the device for decades. Her contributions to GPS were only uncovered when a member of West’s sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, read a short biography West had submitted for an alumni function. She worked at Dahlgren for 42 years, retiring in 1998. This was achieved by processing the data created from the radio altimeter on the Geosat satellite which went into orbit on 12 March 1984. The Naval Surface Weapons Center (NSWC) guide was published to explain how to increase the accuracy of the estimation of “geoid heights and vertical deflection”, topics of satellite geodesy. In 1986, West published “Data Processing System Specifications for the Geosat Satellite Radar Altimeter”, a 60-page illustrated guide. West was a programmer in the Dahlgren Division for large-scale computers and a project manager for data-processing systems used in the analysis of satellite data. ![]() In 1979, Neiman recommended West for commendation. Her supervisor Ralph Neiman recommended her as project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project, the first satellite that could remotely sense oceans. ![]() West began to collect data from satellites, eventually leading to the development of Global Positioning System. In 1956 West began to work at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, where she was the second black woman ever to be employed. ![]()
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