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NASA 'Hidden Figures' women to receive Congressional Gold Medals

By Daniel Miller
Published  September 9, 2024 3:21pm PDT
NASA
KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco

NASA: Hidden Figures and Katherine Johnson

With a slide rule and a pencil, Katherine was responsible for calculating orbital trajectories of numerous space flights, including Alan Shepard, the first American in space and the Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. (Source: NASA TV)

Congressional Gold Medals will be awarded to the NASA mathematicians known as the "Hidden Figures" who played a significant role in astronaut John Glenn’s launch into orbit.

Recipients of the prestigious awards are Katherine Johnson in recognition of her service to the U.S. as a mathematician, Dr. Christine Darden for her service as an aeronautical engineer to the U.S., and Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson in recognition of their service to the nation during the space race. 

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will represent the agency during a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony at 3 p.m. ET on Sept. 18 at the Emancipation Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., according to a NASA release. 

NASA recruited the women to provide calculations for the launch of Glenn into orbit. Johnson, Darden, Vaughan and Jackson and other Black women at the agency were critical to the success of the early space program. 

FILE-NASA space scientist, and mathematician Katherine Johnson poses for a portrait at her desk with an adding machine and a 'Celestial Training device' at NASA Langley Research Center in 1962 in Hampton, Virginia. (Photo by NASA/Getty Images)

Additionally, a Congressional Gold Medal will be awarded in recognition of all the women who served as computers, mathematicians, and engineers at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and NASA between the 1930s and the 1970s.

Who were the "Hidden Figures" women at NASA?

Katherine Johnson provided mathematical analysis for NASA’s first crewed spaceflight and verified the calculation controlling the path of Glenn’s Friendship 7 spacecraft. Johnson also calculated the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon. Johnson also took part in the Space Shuttle program and Earth Resources Satellites, and the early planning for a mission to Mars.

Mary Jackson spent over 30 years at NASA, authoring and co-authoring research reports in her role as engineer, and later became a manager in Langley’s Federal Women’s Program in the NASA Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, per the University of California, Berkeley. 

'Hidden Figures' women to be honored with Congressional medals

Four black women - three of whose stories were featured in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures - will be awarded the Congressional Gold Meal.

Dr. Christine Darden was the first Black woman at NASA to get promoted to a senior executive position. Darden became the technical leader of the Sonic Boom Group and was later named a director in the Program Management Office of the Aerospace Performing Center, where she oversaw air traffic management research and aeronautics programs at other NASA centers. 

Dorothy Vaughan was one of the first Black women hired at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory at NACA in 1943, where she performed mathematical computations for engineers conducting wind tunnel experiments. Vaughan then went on to work with Johnson and Jackson, helping with the mission that sent Glenn into orbit. 

In 2016, the story of the women and their contributions to NASA was documented in the movie "Hidden Figures."

Three years later, the Hidden Figures Congressional Medal Act was introduced by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson in 2019 and it was signed into law that same year.