18 Facts About Yvonne Brill

Yvonne Madelaine Brill was a Canadian American rocket and jet propulsion engineer.

Yvonne Brill is responsible for inventing the Electrothermal Hydrazine Thruster, a fuel-efficient rocket thruster that keeps today's satellites in orbit, and holds a patent for its invention.

Yvonne Brill was inspired to attend school by Amelia Earhart, the first woman pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Yvonne Brill had originally applied to their engineering program at 18, but was denied by the school, as they claimed that their mandatory summer camp did not have the necessary facilities to host female students.

Yvonne Brill went on to study at the University of Southern California, where she took night classes and graduated in 1951 with a master's degree in chemistry.

Yvonne Brill then began working on the Project RAND contract at Douglas where they focused on a new field of rockets, including the first American satellite.

Yvonne Brill's innovation resulted in not only higher engine performance, but increased the reliability of the propulsion system.

Yvonne Brill proposed the use of a single propellant because of the value and simplicity that it would provide.

Yvonne Brill's invention became a standard in the industry and has translated into millions of dollars of increased revenue for commercial communications satellite owners.

Yvonne Brill contributed to the propulsion systems of TIROS, the first weather satellite; Nova, a series of rocket designs that were used in American Moon missions; Explorer 32, the first upper-atmosphere satellite; and the Mars Observer, which in 1992 almost entered a Mars orbit before losing communication with Earth.

Between the years of 1981 and 1983, Yvonne Brill contributed to development of the rocket engines of NASA's space shuttles.

Yvonne Brill finished her career at NASA, overseeing the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Program and on the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.

In light of her brilliance in the field of rocket science and subsequent contributions, Yvonne Brill was the recipient of many prestigious awards and founded scholarships and a lectureship.

Yvonne Brill was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Yvonne Brill was named fellow of The Society of Women Engineers in 1985 and received its highest honor, the Achievement Award, the following year.

Yvonne Brill spent the last twenty years of her life promoting women in science and engineering and nominated them for awards and prizes she thought they deserved.

The couple would move wherever work took him, and Yvonne Brill later began working part-time jobs so that she could care for their two sons, Matthew and Joseph, and a daughter, Naomi.

At age 88, Yvonne Brill died of complications of breast cancer in Princeton, New Jersey.