Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters | |
---|---|
![]() | |
![]() | |
![]() | |
Alternative names | Two Independence Square |
General information | |
Type | Government offices Commercial offices |
Location | 300 Hidden Figures Way SW Washington, D.C. |
Coordinates | 38°52′59″N77°00′59″W / 38.8830°N 77.0163°W |
Named for | Mary W. Jackson |
Completed | 1992 |
Owner | Hana Asset Management [1] |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 9 |
Floor area | 606,000 sq ft (56,300 m2) |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | |
Developer | Boston Properties |
Other information | |
Public transit access | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
References | |
[2] |
The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building at 300 E Street SW in Washington, D.C. houses NASA leadership who provide overall guidance and direction to the US government executive branch agency NASA, under the leadership of the NASA administrator. NASA Headquarters is organized into four Mission Directorates: Aeronautics, Exploration Systems, Science, and Space Operations. Ten field centers and a variety of installations around the country conduct the day-to-day work of the agency. [3]
The James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium, named for NASA's second administrator James E. Webb, hosts agency news conferences and NASA Social events. A lending library, the history office, archives, production facilities for NASA TV, and a NASA gift shop are also housed in the building. [4]
The building, which opened in 1992 as Two Independence Square as part of the two-building Independence Square complex which was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, with George How as the senior designer. [5] It is currently owned by South Korean investment firm Hana Asset Management and leased to NASA through 2028. [1]
On June 12, 2019, the street in front of the building was given the honorary name of Hidden Figures Way in honor of some of NASA's black women mathematicians, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary W. Jackson, who were the central characters in the 2016 film Hidden Figures . [6] On June 24, 2020, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that the agency's headquarters building in Washington, D.C., had been renamed to Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters, after NASA's first black woman engineer, Mary W. Jackson. [7] On February 26, 2021, a ceremony was held officially renaming the building. [8]
In 2023, NASA opened an exhibit in the lobby, marking the first time it welcomed the public into the building. The Earth Information Center exhibit shows how the agency views Earth from space, tracking patterns in air temperature and quality, climate, water levels, and ecosystems and how that can help humans understand and fight climate change. [9] The entrance to the exhibit also features a large NASA worm sculpture, which was dedicated in honor of its designers, Bruce Blackburn and Richard Danne, as well as NASA's former art director Robert Schulman. [10]
The Langley Research Center, located in Hampton, Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also tested space hardware such as the Apollo Lunar Module. In addition, many of the earliest high-profile space missions were planned and designed on-site. Langley was also considered a potential site for NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center prior to the eventual selection of Houston, Texas.
Frederick Drew Gregory is a former United States Air Force pilot, military engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut as well as former NASA Deputy Administrator. He also served briefly as NASA Acting Administrator in early 2005, covering the period between the departure of Sean O'Keefe and the swearing in of Michael D. Griffin.
George Michael Low was an administrator at NASA and the 14th president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Low was one of the senior NASA officials who made decisions as manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office in the Apollo program of crewed missions to the Moon.
The NASA has three official insignia, although the one with stylized red curved text was retired from official use from May 22, 1992, until April 3, 2020, when it was reinstated as a secondary logo. The three logos include the NASA insignia, the NASA logotype, and the NASA seal.
The administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. The administrator is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible for providing clarity to the agency's vision and serving as a source of internal leadership within NASA. The office holder also has an important place within United States space policy, and is assisted by a deputy administrator.
George Edwin Mueller, was an American electrical engineer who was an associate administrator at NASA, heading the Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1963 until December 1969. Hailed as one of NASA's "most brilliant and fearless managers", he was instrumental in introducing the all-up testing philosophy for the Saturn V launch vehicle, which ensured the success of the Apollo program in landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth by the end of 1969. Mueller also played a key part in the design of Skylab, and championed the Space Shuttle's development, which earned him the nickname, "the father of the Space Shuttle."
Homer Edward Newell Jr. was a mathematics professor and author who became a powerful United States government science administrator—eventually rising to the number three position at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In the early 1960s, he either controlled or influenced virtually all non-military uncrewed space missions for the free world.
The National Space Council is a body within the Executive Office of the President of the United States created in 1989 during the George H. W. Bush administration, disbanded in 1993, and reestablished in June 2017 by the Donald Trump administration. It is a modified version of the earlier National Aeronautics and Space Council (1958–1973).
Lori Beth Garver is a former Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was nominated on May 24, 2009, by President Barack Obama, along with Charles Bolden as NASA Administrator. She was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on July 15, 2009. She left the position in September 2013 to become General Manager of the Air Line Pilots Association.
The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program places the three prime NASA space communications networks, Space Network (SN), Near Earth Network (NEN), and the Deep Space Network (DSN), under one Management and Systems Engineering umbrella. It was established in 2006. It was previously known as the Space Communications & Data Systems (SCDS) Program.
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is NASA's first, and oldest, space center. It is named after Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry. Throughout its history, the center has managed, developed, and operated many notable missions, including the Cosmic Background Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Edward J. Weiler was the Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration until his retirement on September 30, 2011.
Creola Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist".
Since its establishment in 1958, NASA has conducted research on a range of topics. Because of its unique structure, work happens at various field centers and different research areas are concentrated in those centers. Depending on the technology, hardware and expertise needed, research may be conducted across a range of centers.
Dorothy Jean Johnson Vaughan was an American mathematician and human computer who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and NASA, at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In 1949, she became acting supervisor of the West Area Computers, the first African-American woman to receive a promotion and supervise a group of staff at the center.
Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder. It is loosely based on the 2016 non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about three female African-American mathematicians: Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, who worked at NASA during the Space Race. Other stars include Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Aldis Hodge, and Glen Powell.
Mary Jackson was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which in 1958 was succeeded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for most of her career. She started as a computer at the segregated West Area Computing division in 1951. In 1958, after taking engineering classes, she became NASA's first black female engineer.
Kazimierz R. Czarnecki was an aeronautics engineer who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and later, for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Stephen G. Jurczyk was an American engineer who served as the Acting Administrator of NASA. He previously worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Bruce Blackburn was an American graphic designer, who was a designer of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) logo and the American Revolution Bicentennial star.