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.

closeup photo of five gold medals arrayed on a stage in front of a lectern with the presidential seal on it, with american flags in the background — Five Congressional Gold Medals were bestowed to the women who worked as at NASA as mathematicians and engineers during the space race, including Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan and Christine Darden, as well as one medal for all of the unnamed hidden figures. (Image credit: NASA)

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.

Assigned to 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 receive credit 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.”

composite black-and-white photo showing four smiling, well-dressed older women — NASA “Hidden Figures” — Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Christine Darden — were each awarded Congressional Gold Medals for their service to the space program at the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (Image credit: NASA)

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.”