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A simple turn of phrase was all it took for U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of Katherine Johnson\u2019s home state of West Virginia to capture the feeling in Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been said that Katherine Johnson counted everything,\u201d she said. \u201cBut today we\u2019re here to celebrate the one thing even she couldn\u2019t count, and that\u2019s the impact that she and her colleagues have had on the lives of students, teachers, and explorers.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sense of admiration and awe toward the legacy and impact of NASA\u2019s Hidden Figures was palpable Wednesday during a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony to honor the women\u2019s work and achievements during the space race.<\/p>\n
The ceremony, hosted by House Speaker Mike Johnson, honored Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Dr. Christine Darden of NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, along with all the other women who served at the agency and its precursor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or the NACA, as computers, mathematicians, and engineers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pioneers we honor today, these Hidden Figures \u2014 their courage and imagination brought us to the Moon. And their lessons, their legacy, will send us back to the Moon,\u201d said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.<\/p>\n
Author Margot Lee Shetterly detailed the stories of the women from NASA Langley in her 2016 nonfiction book \u201cHidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race.\u201d Though the book focused on NASA Langley, where Shetterly\u2019s father worked, it helped raise awareness of similar stories around NASA.<\/p>\n
A film adaptation of the book starring Taraji Henson as Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Vaughan, and Janelle Mon\u00e1e as Jackson came out later that year and further elevated the topic. NASA participated under a Space Act Agreement with 20th Century Fox in activities around the movie, to provide historical guidance and advice during the filmmaking process.<\/p>\n
In her remarks, Shetterly noted that even as the Hidden Figures made such key contributions to NASA and the NACA before it, they remained active in their communities, leading Girl Scout troops and delivering meals to the hungry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey spent countless hours tutoring kids so that those kids, too, would see the power and the beauty of numbers they believed in, tending to the small D democracy that binds us to each other as neighbors and as American citizens,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The medal citations were as follows:<\/p>\n
Family members of Johnson, Vaughn, Jackson and Dr. Darden accepted medals on their behalves. Dr. Darden watched the ceremony from home.<\/p>\n
Andrea Mosie, senior Apollo sample processor and lab manager who oversees the 842 pounds of Apollo lunar samples, accepted the medal awarded to all NASA\u2019s Hidden Figures. She began her career at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
Mosie thanked Congress for supporting NASA\u2019s campaign to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon as part of Artemis and the agency\u2019s efforts to provide \u201copportunities for people, more representative of the way our country looks, to understand humanity\u2019s place in the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several NASA Langley officials attended the event to honor the legacies of the women who worked there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am humbled by the significant contributions and lasting impact of these women to America\u2019s aeronautics and space programs. Their brilliance and perseverance still echo not just through the halls of NASA Langley, but through the entire Agency,\u201d said NASA Langley\u2019s Acting Center Director Dawn Schaible. \u201cThey are an inspiration to me and countless others who have benefited from the paths they forged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, who passed away in 2023, introduced H.R. 1396 \u2013 Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act on Feb. 27, 2019. It was signed into law later that year.<\/p>\n
In 2015, President Barack Obama presented Katherine Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation\u2019s highest civilian honor.<\/p>\n