; (B) was promoted to be the head of the West Area Computing unit, becoming NACA’s first African-American supervisor, a position that she held for 9 years; and (C) became an expert programmer in FORTRAN as a member of NASA’s Analysis and Computation Division. (15) Dorothy Vaughan retired from NASA in 1971 and died on November 10, 2008. (16) Mary Jackson was born on April 9, 1921, in Hampton, Virginia. (17) Mary Jackson started her career at NACA in 1951, working as a computer as a member of the West Area Computing unit. (18) After petitioning the city of Hampton to allow her to take graduate-level courses in math and physics at night at the all-White Hampton High School, Mary Jackson was able to complete the required training to become an engineer, making her NASA’s first female African-American engineer. (19) Mary Jackson— (A) while at NACA and NASA— (i) worked in the Theoretical Aerodynamics Branch of the Subsonic-Transonic Aerodynamics Division at Langley where she analyzed wind tunnel and aircraft flight data; and (ii) published a dozen technical papers that focused on the boundary layer of air around airplanes; and (B) after 21 years working as an engineer at NASA, transitioned to a new job as Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager where she worked to improve the prospects of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers, and scientists. (20) Mary Jackson retired from NASA in 1985 and died in 2005. (21) These 4 women, along with the other African-American women in NASA’s West Area Computing unit, were integral to the success of the early space program. The stories of these 4 women exemplify the experiences of hundreds of women who worked as computers, mathematicians, and engineers at NACA beginning in the 1930s and the handmade calculations that they made played an integral role in— (A) aircraft testing during World War II; (B) supersonic flight research; (C) sending the Voyager probes to explore the solar system