NASA’s ‘Hidden Figures’ awarded Congressional Gold Medal for groundbreaking work

A group of Black female mathematicians, aeronautical engineers and human computers whose groundbreaking work for NASA during the 20th century space race contributed to the nation’s historic achievements were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony Wednesday on Capitol Hill. The honorees were recognized with the nation’s highest civilian honor and include three women who became known as NASA’s “Hidden Figures” — NASA’s first black female engineer Mary Jackson and mathematicians Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan — whose work helped pave the way for the first American astronaut to successfully orbit the Earth. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who delivered opening remarks during the ceremony, described the women as “giants on whose shoulders all of those astronauts actually stood at a time … when our nation was divided by color and often by gender.” The Congressional Gold Medal was also awarded Wednesday to aeronautical engineer Christine Darden, who is “internationally known for her research into supersonic aircraft noise, especially sonic boom reduction,” according to NASA, and became the first Black woman at NASA Langley to be appointed to the top management rank of Senior Executive Service. This photo provided by NASA shows engineer Mary W. Jackson at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., in 1977. Robert Nye/NASA via AP The legacy and story of Jackson, Johnson and Vaughan was famously captured in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures,” which was loosely based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2016 nonfiction book of the same name. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also spoke during Wednesday’s ceremony, paying tribute to the women. NASA via AP “The pioneers that we honor today, these ‘Hidden Figures,’ their courage and imagination brought us to the moon, and their lessons, their legacy will send us back to the moon, and then imagine, just imagine, when we leave our footprints on the red sands of Mars,” he said. The Congressional Gold Medal was also awarded on Wednesday to all the women who served as human computers, mathematicians and engineers between the 1930s and 1970s at NASA and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NASA’s predecessor. House Speaker Mike Johnson presents a Congressional Gold Medal to Andrea Mosie, Apollo Sample Lead Processor, during a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony to honor women who served as computers, mathematicians, and engineers at NASA between the 1930’s and 1970’s, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Sept. 18, 2024. Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters According to NASA, the space race between the U.S. and the then-Soviet Union began in 1957 with the U.S.S.R.’s successful launch of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. That goal that was met eight years later when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first two humans to set foot on the moon, as fellow astronaut Mike Collins flew the Apollo 11 command module around the moon, according to NASA. The legislation tasked Congress with awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Johnson, Jackson, Vaughan, Darden and “all the women who served as computers, mathematicians, and engineers” at NASA and NACA “between the 1930s and the 1970s.” The late Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, who first introduced the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act in February 2019, thanked her colleagues on Oct. 17, 2019, after the bill was passed, saying in a statement at the time, “Acknowledging the many women who have not been given the recognition they deserve for their contributions to technological advancement and competitiveness in the US has become one of my greatest privileges as a Member of Congress.” – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/nasa-hidden-figures-awarded-congressional-gold-medal/story?id=113772549