Hidden Figures
The NASA girls who loved to count
Katherine G. Johnson
born 26. August 1918
"I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed … anything that could be counted, I did.” So said Katherine Johnson, recipient of the 2015 National Medal of Freedom.
Mary Winston Jackson
born 09. April 1921
“We have to do something like this to get them interested in science," she said in an article for the local newspaper. "Sometimes they are not aware of the number of black scientists, and don't even know of the career opportunities until it is too late."
Dorothy Vaughan
born 20. September 1910
In a 1994 interview, she recalled that working at Langley during the Space Age felt like being on “the cutting edge of something very exciting.”
Awards and honors (en.wikipedia.org)
- 1967: NASA Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations Team award
- 1967: Apollo Group Achievement Award
- 1971: NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award (zu deutsch: Auszeichnung des NASA Langley Research Center für besondere Leistungen)
- 1980: NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
- 1984-1986: NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
- 1998: Ehrendoktor der Rechtswissenschaft der SUNY Farmingdale
- 1999: Outstanding Alumnus of the Year (zu deutsch: Herausragende Alumna des Jahres) des West Virginia State College
- 2006: Ehrendoktor des Capitol College, Laurel (Maryland)
- 2010: Ehrendoktor der Old Dominion University, Norfolk (Virginia)
- 2015: Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Apollo Group Achievement Award, 1969[2][6]
- Daniels Alumni Award for Outstanding Service to Disadvantaged Youth
- National Council of Negro Women, Inc. Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Service to the Community
- Distinguished Service Award for her work with the Combined Federal Campaign representing Humanitarian Agencies, 1972
- Langley Research Center Outstanding Volunteer Award, 1975
- Langley Research Center Volunteer of the Year, 1976
- Iota Lambda Sorority Award for the Peninsula Outstanding Woman Scientist, 1976
- King Street Community Center Outstanding Award
- National Technical Association's Tribute Award, 1976
- Hampton Roads Chapter "Book of Golden Deeds" for service
- Langley Research Center Certificate of Appreciation, 1976–1977
- 1943 Vaughan started to work at NACA
- 1949, Vaughan was assigned as the acting head of the West Area Computers, taking over from a white woman who had died. She was the first Black supervisor at NACA and one of few female supervisors.
- 1961: moved into the area of electronic computing, after NACA introduced the first digital (non-human) computers to the center
- 1971: NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award (zu deutsch: Auszeichnung des NASA Langley Research Center für besondere Leistungen)
- 1958: after NASA, the successor agency, was established, she conitinued
- 1971: She worked at NASA-Langley for a total of twenty-eight years.
- 2008: She lived until November 10, 2008, aged 98