NASA Launches ‘Hidden Figures Way’ at Washington Headquarters To Honor Female Space Icons

June 12, 2019 (EIRNS)—The 300 block of E Street SW outside NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. was renamed “Hidden Figures Way,” today, in honor of the women who worked as “human computers” at the agency when it first started launching astronauts into space, during the 1960s.

In attendance at the renaming ceremony outside NASA Headquarters were NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), sponsor of S.3370-Hidden Figures Way Designation Act. Also attending was Margot Lee Shetterly, the author of Hidden Figures, and members of the families of “human computers” Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, as well as Christine Darden, a mathematician who worked alongside them at NASA Langley. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson unveiled the new street sign at the corner of 3rd Street and what is now Hidden Figures Way. During the ceremony Shetterly stated: “Naming this street ‘Hidden Figures Way’ serves to remind us, and everyone who comes here, of the standard that was set by these women, with their commitment to science and their embodiment of the values of equality, justice, and humanity.”

Later NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted, “Introducing Hidden Figures Way! Today, we honored our ‘human computers’ by designating the street outside of our headquarters as a symbolic way to pay homage to their work that made spaceflight possible.”

NASA’s website coverage of the ceremony declares: “Visitors to NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. will forevermore be reminded of the African American women who were essential to the success of early spaceflight.” What a beautiful dedication to such brilliant and creative minds, who calculated the trajectories needed to get our astronauts into space and to the Moon, and return them safely to Earth.