NASA is naming its Washington headquarters after Mary Jackson, the space agency's first African American female engineer whose story was portrayed in the popular film Hidden Figures. Jackson started her NASA career in 1951 as part of a segregated unit of female mathematicians at what is now Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson was later promoted to engineer and retired from NASA in 1985. "Mary W. Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space, " NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement Wednesday. A NASA facility is also named for her in West Virginia, her home state.

Source: CBC News June 26, 2020 12:01 UTC