This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

On May 8, 1962, a powerful rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The liftoff was a test of NASA’s readiness for space exploration and a potentially groundbreaking moment in the Cold War space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The idea, briefly floated behind closed doors, seemed to fizzle, and Mr. Trump did not publicly repeat it as experts questioned whether such a model would even be possible. But in the weeks since, Mr. Trump has floated ideas that, taken together,9x999 slots would fundamentally change the way Americans are taxed, eroding the income tax while embracing expansive tariffs as a way to raise federal revenue.

Scientists, engineers and spectators watched with anticipation — this test, they knew, could push the boundaries of technology in a way they’d never seen before.

But 54 seconds into the flight, the rocket exploded.

The rocket had two parts: An Atlas booster to thrust it off the ground and a Centaur upper stage intended to propel it beyond the earth’s atmosphere.

An analysis determined that the insulation panels in the Centaur, which used a flammable combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as a propellant, couldn’t withstand the pressure and had ruptured, causing the explosion.

Annie Easley was a member of the team at NASA’s Lewis Research Center in Cleveland (now the Glenn Research Center) given the critical task of fixing the Centaur’s design. Unlike most people working on the project, she was not an engineer. She hadn’t even finished college. But she was an excellent mathematician and computer programmer who was adept at solving problems.

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