NASA HQ Named After Mary W. Jackson
NASA Names Headquarters After ‘Hidden Figure’ Mary W. Jackson
“NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Wednesday the agency’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA. Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.”
Well deserved. Too bad it couldn’t have been done while the lady was alive. Of course naming buildings and bases after individuals typically is done only after the person has died, e.g., Grissom AFB replaced “Bunkier Hill AFB” in Indiana; Malmstrom AFB after Col. Einar Malmstrom died in the crash of his B-25. Maybe, it is time to change the policy.
Yes, long over due. It’s about time. Edward Dwight Jr is still alive and it would be nice for NASA to honor him somehow given what happened in the 1960’s.
https://www.smithsonianmag….
Ed Dwight Was Going to Be the First African American in Space. Until He Wasn’t
I actually like that policy against naming things after living people. In this case, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but I don’t like the precedent. Once you start naming things after living people, egos get involved. I don’t like the idea of people saying, “They named something for so-and-so, and I’m every bit as important as him, so they should name something after me.” And it wouldn’t be limited to the person in question; that person’s friends and proteges would be arguing for one person’s name rather than another. That’s just a conversation I’d like to avoid and keep permanently closed. The IAU, for example, lets discoverers of asteroids name them more or less anything. But one restriction is the naming them for political figures. That’s only allowed if they’ve been dead for 100 years. It gives time for the dust to settle and their real prominence (good and bad) to become clearer in an historical context.
I will also note that I didn’t like it when NASA Lewis Research Center was renamed for Glenn or Dryden Flight Center renamed for Armstrong. Not that John Glenn or Neil Armstrong didn’t deserve to have something important named for them, but so did George Lewis and Hugh Dryden. I think one of the points of naming things after people is to help people remember who they were. At the very least, it might make some people unfamiliar with the name look it up. But I realize many people don’t agree with me about that.
I never really like the cusom of naming every space rock for someone. What is going to happen when one named for a famous person gets taken apart for materials to build a space settlement?
Nice!
excellent News well deserved !