NASA names D.C. headquarters after 1st Black woman engineer
NASA announced Wednesday it is naming its headquarters in Washington, D.C., after mathematician and aerospace engineer Mary Jackson, the U.S. space agency's first Black woman engineer. 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 Wednesday. "Mary never accepted the status quo — she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology." Her story was told in the book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, and the movie of the same name. Jackson retired from NASA in 1985 and died in 2005; she posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2019. [CBS News]