The Real 'Hidden Figures' of NASA

African American women mathematicians were crucial to NASA's early space program but were systematically excluded from recognition. Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory for the first American in space (Alan Shepard) and the Apollo 11 moon landing. Dorothy Vaughan became NASA's first Black supervisor and taught herself and her staff FORTRAN programming. Mary Jackson became NASA's first Black female engineer. These 'human computers' worked in segregated facilities and were often denied credit for their calculations that literally put men in space.