Katherine Johnson Hidden Figures Bronze Medal

This medal is a bronze replica of the Congressional Gold Medal presented to Katherine Johnson in recognition of her contribution to the success of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. Congress authorized the medal on November 8, 2019 and presented it on September 18, 2024. The Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act (Public Law 116-68) also awarded medals to Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Dr. Christine Darden, and a fifth medal for all the women who made NASA successful. The Mint issued the bronze medal duplicates in 3.0 inch and 1.5 inch sizes.

Katherine Johnson was a mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics were critical to the success of American-crewed spaceflights. She began her career in 1953 as a computer in the segregated West Area Computing unit at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. She then moved to the Flight Research Division analyzing data from flight tests.

In 1961, she calculated the the trajectory for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission, which was America’s first crewed spaceflight. She continued to provide calculations for NASA throughout her career, including John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission and the Apollo missions. Katherine Johnson retired from NASA in 1986.