Hidden Figures: The Figures

" ... Johnson became a household name thanks to the celebrated book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race,” which later became a movie. Her legacy provides lessons for supporting women and other underrepresented groups in mathematics and science ... "

" ... IEEE last month recognized her work with its President’s Award, “for fundamental computational contributions to the success of American’s first and subsequent manned spaceflights, including Apollo 11 ... "

"The award
celebrated her more than 50 years as a productive mathematician, most of these years having been spent with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ... "

"Katherine Johnson negotiated the dynamics of both race and space ... "

"... Those who speak of NASA’s pioneers rarely mention the name Dorothy Vaughan, but as 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 ... "

"When we think of NASA Scientists today, we visualise a diverse and inclusive workforce, but this was not always the case. The unsung heroes of early NASA were often those who not only broke gender, but racial stereotypes too ... "

" ... Vaughan and her team’s calculations helped some of the first astronauts to get back to Earth safely after space missions. She was also the first Black women to be a supervisor at NACA, constantly fighting for equality against the racial prejudices of America at the time ... "

"Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal ... "

"For Mary Winston Jackson, a love of science and a commitment to improving the lives of the people around her were one and the same ... "

"Mary Winston Jackson was an African American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which in 1958 was succeeded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ... "

"When it comes to American space exploration, John Glenn had the right stuff, making history in 1962 as the first American to orbit Earth ... "

"Before his 4-hour, 55-minute flight in the Friendship 7 capsule, Glenn had served as backup pilot for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space who flew on May 5, 1961, and to Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who followed Shepard on a suborbital flight of his own ... "

"On February 20, 1962, John Glenn, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, became the first American to orbit the Earth. His service to his country did not begin or end there, however. A U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot, Glenn was decorated veteran of two wars, a U.S. Senator for Ohio, and an astronaut again when he traveled into space for the second time in 1998 ... "

"John Glenn conducted the first manned space orbit of the earth by an American on February 20, 1962. This is the transcription of his in-flight communication with Mission Control in Florida ... "