NASA's 'Hidden Figures' women awarded Congressional Gold Medals

Although they may never completely shed the label, the women who worked for NASA as human computers during the space race are no longer "hidden figures," and they now have a medal to prove it.

On Wednesday (Sept. 18), the women as a group and four individuals who have come to represent their collective experiences were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest civilian honors in the United States. As authorized by Congress, the medals were bestowed to Christine Darden and posthumously to Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan.

A separate Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal was also dedicated to all of the women who worked as mathematicians and engineers at NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) and NASA between the 1930s and 1970s.

"These women didn't just crunch numbers and solve equations," said Rep. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. "They actually laid the very foundation upon which our rockets launched and our astronauts flew and our nation soared."

"So today, for all their contributions to the space program and to society, it is my great honor to award these women with a Congressional Gold Medal," Johnson said.

Hosted by the Speaker, the ceremony brought together other representatives and senators, NASA officials and the families of Johnson, Jackson, Vaughan and Darden in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol in Washington. (Darden watched live from her home in Connecticut.)

Related: Facts about NASA's real 'Hidden Figures'

"The remarkable things that NASA achieves and that America achieves build on the pioneers who came before us, people like the women of Mercury and Gemini and Apollo," said Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator. "The women we honor today made it possible for earthlings to lift beyond the bounds of Earth."

The honorees' contributions to the space program were first brought forward in the 2016 book "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly, which in turn inspired the feature film by the same title starring Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe and Octavia Spencer as Johnson, Jackson and Vaughan.

In support of the work of the Space Task Group, Johnson calculated trajectories for NASA's early human spaceflights, including the suborbital launch of the first American in space, Alan Shepard, and the first flight of a U.S. astronaut into Earth orbit, John Glenn. Johnson, who died in 2020 at the age of 101, was the first woman in NASA's flight research division to be credited as an author of a research report.

In 2015, Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A year later, NASA named Langley's then-new Computational Research Facility in her honor.

Vaughan led the West Area Computing unit at what today is Langley Research Center in Virginia, becoming the first African American supervisor at NACA. She later became a leading computer programmer as a part of NASA's analysis and computation division. Vaughan died in 2008 at the age of 98.

Earlier this year, NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston marked the 55th anniversary of the first moon landing by dedicating one of its original buildings as the "Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo."

Jackson was the first African American woman engineer at NASA. Later in her career, she worked to improve the prospects of NASA's female mathematicians, engineers and scientists as Langley's Federal Women's Program manager. She died in 2005 at the age of 83.

In 2021, NASA honored Jackson with the naming of its headquarters building in Washington.

Darden, who today is 82, became an engineer at NASA 16 years after Jackson, wrote over 50 articles on aeronautics design and was the first African American of any gender to be promoted into the Senior Executive Service at Langley.

There were hundreds, if not thousands of other women, both caucasian and Black, who were stationed at NASA's facilities and centers, performing calculations before electronic computers were available. Many of their names have been lost to history, though their role is now widely known.

In recognition of them all, the stretch of E Street running in front of the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building was named "Hidden Figures Way" in 2019.

"To all of the other women who served our country throughout NASA's history as computers, mathematicians, data analysts, engineers and scientists, women who are still largely hidden figures, women from all backgrounds and from all corners of our great nation, I am delighted that we are celebrating you today as well," said Shetterly.

"It is quite an honor and a privilege to be here, representing the many women of Apollo and the space program who dedicated their lives and talent to making sure the sky is never the limit," said Andrea Mosie, said senior Apollo sample processor and lab manager at Johnson Space Center. "Thank you for intentionally seeking diverse opinions for solutions to humanity's challenges of living off the planet."

Related: Facts about NASA's Apollo 11 mission

The Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act was first introduced in 2018 by the late Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) and Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) into the U.S. House of Representatives. A companion bill followed in the Senate as led by Chris Coons (D-Del.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and then senator (D-Calif.) and now Vice President Kamala Harris.

Enacted in 2019, the Hidden Figures act directs that Vaughan's medal be provided to the Smithsonian for display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

Since 1776 and its presentation to George Washington, the Congressional Gold Medal has been awarded to individuals whose impact on U.S. history was likely to be recognized in the recipient's field for years to come. Only five other recipients have made contributions to space exploration: rocket pioneer Robert Goddard in 1959 and astronauts John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins in 2011.

As directed by Congress, the Secretary of the Treasury determined the design for each of the Hidden Figures gold medals. The U.S. Mint has produced duplicates of the medals in bronze, which went for sale at the end of Wednesday's ceremony.

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