Alla Genrikhovna Masevitsch was a Russian astrophysicist. She served as assistant chairman of the Astronomical Council of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
She is known for her work in organizing observations of some of the first Russian satellites.
You've never heard of her not only because she was a woman, but in this special case, because she was Soviet.
Please pardon any infelicities in this, as I had to read an article in Russian to write it, a task made more difficult than it might have been by the fact that I don't fucking speak Russian (or read Cyrillic, come to that).
