NASA Administrator Bill Nelson made the remarks at the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in Washington on Wednesday. The award recognizes women who have contributed to the space race, including the NASA mathematicians who helped land the first astronauts on the moon as part of the agency’s Apollo program.

“Good day.

“The remarkable things NASA is accomplishing…and America is accomplishing…build on the pioneers who came before us.

“People like Mercury, Gemini and Apollo women.

“People like Mary Jackson. Dr. Christine Darden. Dorothy Vaughan. Katherine Johnson.

“Thank you to all the members of Congress who made today possible. The late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who we miss, who led the effort with Senator Chris Coons in 2019 to create these medals. Thank you to the champions of the legislation, then-Senator Kamala Harris, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Shelley Moore Capito, and Congressman Frank Lucas.

“The women we honor today have enabled Earth’s inhabitants to reach beyond the boundaries of the earth and follow generations of trailblazers.

“We didn’t come this far just to get this far.

“We continue that legacy, as one member of our audience does every day – the remarkable Andrea Mosie.

“Andrea, who has worked at NASA for nearly 50 years, is the lead processor of the Apollo Sample Program. She oversees the moon rocks and lunar samples NASA brought back from Apollo, 842 pounds of celestial science! These samples are national treasures. So is Andrea.

“The pioneers we honor today, these unrecognized ones – their courage and their imagination took us to the Moon. And their lessons, their legacies, will take us back to the Moon… and then… imagine – just imagine – when we leave our footprints in the red sands of Mars.

“Thanks to these people who are part of our NASA family, we will continue to sail the cosmic sea to distant cosmic shores.”

For more information about NASA missions, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

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Meira Bernstein / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
[email protected] / [email protected]