NASA pays tribute to "hidden characters" who helped John Glenn gravitate around the Earth

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NASA paid tribute to the three "hidden characters" who helped the first American astronaut to successfully orbit the Earth by renaming the street in front of NASA headquarters in Washington, Hidden Figures Way.

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The three African-American women were featured in the 2016 film "Hidden Figures", starring Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe and Octavia Spencer. The film details the true story of
Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, who have been victims of discrimination, racism and segregation, have played a vital role in preparing for the orbital mission of astronaut John Glenn.

The three women were mathematical brains who helped write the story.

PHOTO: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Commons, poses for a photo at a ceremony in honor of the African-American female mathematician of NASA Hidden Figures, who helped the US Space Program at the Statuary Hall of the Capitol, March 27, 2019.
Puce Somodevilla / Getty Images
House of Representatives President Nancy Pelosi poses for a photo at an event celebrating NASA's "hidden figures", African-American mathematicians who helped the US space program at Statuary Hall of the Capitol, March 27, 2019.

According to NASA, Glenn did not trust electronic computers too much and instead asked engineers to "ask the girl", referring to Johnson, to run the same numbers using the same equations programmed in The software. computer in hand.

In December 2018, the council of the DC voted unanimously to honor the scientists "to the hidden figure" and to rename the block 300 of the street E, in the south-west of the country, according to the Affiliate of ABC Washington, WJLA.

Senator Ted Cruz, Chairman of the Washington Council Council, Phil Mendelson, and author Margot Lee, who wrote the book "Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four African American Women Who Contributed to bring our nation into space, "to rename E Street SW.

PHOTO: A covered street sign is seen outside the NASA headquarters building on the eve of a street name change ceremony, on June 11, 2019, in Washington, DC.
Joel Kowsky / NASA
A covered street sign is seen outside the NASA headquarters building on the eve of a street name change ceremony on June 11, 2019, in Washington, DC.

"It was about the way computers – these women mathematicians – were doing hard work in aeronautical research, and how women of all walks of life prove that not only are women good at math, but that they are not only good at maths, but at the same time they do not work. they are sometimes the best in mathematics, "Lee said.

Johnson, 100, is the last survivor of the three.

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