Dorothy Vaughan
Before taking a job at Langley during WWII, Dorothy worked in this low-paying profession in rural Virginia.
What is a high school mathematics teacher?
Astronaut John Glenn famously refused to launch into orbit until Katherine personally verified these.
What are the orbital trajectory calculations generated by the IBM computer?
To take night engineering courses at all-white Hampton High School, Mary Jackson had to take this formal legal action.
What is petitioning the city court for special permission?
The geopolitical rivalry between the United States and this superpower drove massive government funding into NACA/NASA during the 1950s and 60s.
What is the Soviet Union (USSR)?
Dorothy taught herself this programming language from a library book so her team wouldn't be replaced by electronic computers.
What is FORTRAN?
Katherine broke social protocol at Langley by repeatedly asking this bold question until she was allowed into key male-only strategy briefings.
What is "Is there a law against a woman going to the meetings?" (or asking to join editorial/briefing meetings)?
Mary Jackson holds this title in NASA history, achieved after years of fighting administrative roadblocks.
Who is NASA’s first African American female engineer?
This 1957 event sent shockwaves through America and officially triggered the "Space Race".
What is the Soviet Union launching the Sputnik 1 satellite?
Dorothy achieved this historic milestone at NACA/Langley in 1949, becoming the first African American woman to hold this position.
What is becoming an official supervisor / head of West Area Computing?
Katherine used advanced principles from this branch of mathematics to calculate exact launch windows and landing trajectories.
What is analytic geometry?
Christine Darden specialized in aerodynamics research focusing on reducing this noise phenomenon caused by supersonic aircraft.
What is a sonic boom?
State and local laws across the American South enforcing racial segregation in public facilities were known by this name.
What are Jim Crow laws?
When the IBM 7090 electronic computers arrived at Langley, Dorothy recognized that human computers would become obsolete unless they learned this new technical skill set.
What is computer programming / machine operations?
Katherine was assigned to this specific branch at Langley, which was responsible for calculating flight dynamics for experimental aircraft and spacecraft.
What is the Flight Research Division?
After years of working as an engineer, Mary Jackson took a demotion to work as NASA’s Federal Women’s Program Manager for this primary reason.
What is to help hire, promote, and advance female mathematicians, engineers, and scientists across NASA?
NACA was rebranded as NASA in 1958. What do the acronyms NACA and NASA stand for?
What are National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)?
Dorothy advocated for her entire team when electronic computing took over by insisting on this specific condition to management.
What is transferring her entire group of West Area female computers together to staff the new electronic computing division?
In addition to John Glenn’s orbital flight, Katherine made critical trajectory calculations for this historic 1969 moon landing mission.
What is Apollo 11 (or the Apollo program)?
Christine Darden earned this advanced academic degree, making her one of the few women at NASA during her era to hold one in engineering.
What is a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering?
Executive Order 8802, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, was crucial to the plot of Hidden Figures because it mandated this policy.
What is desegregating the defense industry and prohibiting racial discrimination in federal defense hiring?