This month, The Hub News is spotlighting Black women who have helped change history.
For this week, we’ll be celebrating the life and work of mathematician and computer programmer Dorothy Vaughan.
Born on Sep. 20, 1910, in Kansas City, Vaughan moved with her family to West Virginia in 1917, where she eventually attended Beechurst High School. In 1929, she graduated from Wilberforce University with a degree in mathematics. Eventually, Vaughan found work as a math teacher, dividing her time between home and Robert Russa Moton High School, where she taught.
In 1943, Vaughan, her husband and her six children moved to Newport News, Virginia. While there, she was hired as a mathematician at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in what she thought would be a temporary job.
Known as the NACA, the company would eventually evolve to become NASA. Under Executive Order 8802 issued by President Roosevelt, the government prevented discrimination in employment for federal sectors, unions, and companies. Although NACA adhered to the executive order, Vaughan was forced to work in a segregated division known as the “West Area Computing” unit.
While at NACA, she performed mathematical computations for wind-tunnel experiments in preparation for aircraft development. By 1949, she broke barriers as the first Black supervisor at NACA. As supervisor of the West Area Computers, Vaughan led a team of Black women mathematicians. With her promotion, she advocated for the women within the company, fighting for higher wages and other promotions for them.
For nearly 10 years, Vaughan served as the manager of the division as one of the few women to have a leadership position within NACA. Through her role, she collaborated with other computer scientists, including Vera Huckel and Sara Bullock, on projects such as creating algebraic methods for computing machines.
In 1958, when NACA formally transitioned into NASA, the West Area Computers office was removed as the company desegregated their workforce. Vaughan joined the new iteration of the Analysis and Computation Division, an integrated sector focused on electronic computing.
As part of the new team, she became a specialist in FORTRAN programming, providing code for simulations and wind modeling. Vaughan had predicted a rise in the implementation of technology and taught herself the program, becoming one of the first women FORTRAN programmers. In turn, she encouraged and taught her coworkers FORTRAN to prepare them for the change.
Through her role in the Analysis and Computation Division at NASA, Vaughan also took part in the SCOUT Program. Known as the Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test Launch Vehicle Program, the initiative sought to develop the first solid-fuel launch vehicle capable of orbiting a satellite.
The program successfully built a system capable of launching a 385-pound satellite within a potential 500-mile range. SCOUT operated for over 30 years and completed 87 launches, making history as the first orbital launch vehicle to operate solely on solid-fuel stages.
In 1961, Vaughan once again carved her name into history through her participation in helping launch astronaut John Glenn into space. Alongside other West Computing alumni, such as Eunice Smith, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson, she prepared for the mission by providing accuracy on the statistics of the capsule. Through the work of the women, on Feb. 20. 1962, Glenn became the fifth person to go to space, marking a pivotal moment at the height of the Space Race.
Vaughan, Jackson and Johnson played similar roles in other missions, providing calculations and analyzing them for initiatives such as Alan Shepard’s launch into space. Shepard is formally known as the first American to travel to space.
The women were also involved in the 1969 Moon landing, helping Neil Armstrong reach the Moon and take his first steps there.
Although Vaughan was involved in several of these pivotal missions in NASA’s history, she never received another managerial position at the company. At the age of 61, in 1971, she retired from her career. At the age of 98, she passed away from natural causes.
For her contributions to computing and NASA’s history, Vaughan was honored with a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal in 2024. That same year, NASA renamed its central data office in her name.
Vaughan has also been celebrated through various initiatives. In 2020, a satellite named after her was sent into orbit. A year before, a lunar crater was also named after her.
