Jane Goode

Jane Goode received a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from the University of Maine in 1961 and a Master’s degree from Western New England College. She came to the MIT Instrumentation Lab (now Draper) in 1966 as part of a team of contractors from the System Development Corporation to assist in writing the software for the Apollo Guidance Computer. Jane was one of the few women who contributed to the Apollo Project at the lab. She worked specifically on the on board rendezvous targeting and navigation software for the Command Module. Goode’s job included providing mission support at the Instrumentation Lab, leading software testing teams, and training astronaut crews.

She moved between Cambridge and Cape Canaveral all while contributing valuable insight to the project. One major contribution was MINKEY (Minimum Keystroke), which automatically sequenced through the rendezvous programs, relieving the Command Module pilot of many manual keystrokes. MINKEY was used on Apollo 15, 16, and 17.  After Apollo, Goode worked on many Navy projects. She won the Outstanding Task Leader award in 2002 for her work on the System Definition Program. Jane passed away in 2018.