NASA Renames W.V. Facility to Honor ‘Hidden Figures’ Scientist Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson, the retired NASA mathematician whose life journey was depicted on screen in the acclaimed film “Hidden Figures,” is being recognized by the space agency in a huge way.

NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation Facility (IV&Dans) in Fairmont, West Virginia, has been renamed to honor Johnson, whose mathematical calculations played an essential role in the space race. As a Black woman, Johnson led a distinguished career in the agency as a “human computer” during a time when racial segregation was prevalent and the important roles in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which would later become NASA) were mostly filled by white men.

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