I was on vacation last week and on the plane back to Orange County, I watched the movie “Hidden Figures” the story of the black female “computers” at NASA Langley in the early days of the space program. First of all, it was a great movie and a true story. Secondly, I was surprised I didn’t know about the history of the legendary African American female computers. During the height of the space program during the 1960’s, I was in grade school and has just finished eight grade when Apollo 11 landed on the moon in July 1969. I clearly remember watching Neil Armstrong climb down the ladder to the lunar surface on TV in blurry black and white video. I was fascinated by what was happening and like many others I was glued to the TV during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. I knew by the seventh grade that science was my path forward. Struck by how I didn’t know about these incredible women, I did some research and found some very interesting additional background information on the NASA website. I have provided a short summary for the three key figures in the movie.
Hidden Figures is the story of three black female pioneers in the NASA space program.
- Katherine Johnson, (photo at left courtesy of NASA) a brilliant mathematician who provided critical mathematical calculations for the early Mercury space launches of Alan Shepard and John Glenn. John Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations made by the new electronic computers before his flight aboard Friendship 7 – the mission on which he became the first American to orbit the Earth. She continued to work at NASA until 1986 combining her math talent with electronic computer skills. Her calculations proved critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program. She was awarded the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. From https://www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-loved-to-count
- Mary Jackson, NASA’s first female black engineer, started in the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory’s segregated West Area Computing section in 1951. She gained experience working in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel testing spacecraft models at windspeeds almost two times the speed of sound. Wind tunnel engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki suggested she enter a training program to earn a promotion from mathematician to Engineer. Mary completed the courses, earned the promotion, and in 1958 became NASA’s first black female engineer. She enjoyed a long a productive career as a NASA engineer. From https://www.nasa.gov/people/mary-w-jackson-biography/
- Dorothy Vaughan, was the head of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA’s) segregated West Area Computing Unit from 1949 until 1958, Vaughan was both a respected mathematician and NASA’s first African-American manager. She was an expert in Fortran programming used on the IBM mainframes in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Dorothy was a staunch advocate of the women in West Computing often provided inputs for promotions for both white and black computers. Engineers valued her recommendations as to the best “girls” for a particular project, and for challenging assignments they often requested that she personally handle the work. From https://www.nasa.gov/people/dorothy-vaughan/
A couple of things stuck with me after the movie. The first is how incredibly resilient these women were. In the face of both racial and gender discrimination, these women followed their passions, worked hard, and achieved great accomplishments in service to the United States space program. They didn’t see obstacles, they saw opportunities. Gifted with amazing intellects, all three of these women blazed a path for all women regardless of race or gender. I was struck that even as recently as the early 60’s how racially divided we were. Thankfully, we have come a long way since then.
Secondly, since the space program had a profound influence on my professional trajectory, I wonder what now is catching the minds of our young “hidden figures” both male and female of all nationalities? How do we harness the amazing intellects of our young scientists or encourage talented science and math students to pursue engineering or research careers?
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