Overview
- Her death was announced in a message on her official X account, which thanked supporters for their prayers.
- West joined the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in 1956 and served for more than four decades before retiring in 1998.
- During the 1970s and 1980s she developed highly precise mathematical models of Earth’s shape using satellite data.
- Those models formed a technical foundation for what became the Global Positioning System.
- Public recognition of her contributions grew late in life, including a 2018 induction into the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame, as GPS spread from military origins to widespread civilian use.