NASA announced it will name its Washington, D.C. headquarters building after the space agencys first Black female engineer, Mary Jackson.
Jackson, who was played by actor Janelle Monae in the movie Hidden Figures, started her NASA career at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Prior to the headquarters new name, nine out of 10 of NASA centers were named after white men: Ames Research Center, Armstrong Flight Research Center, Glenn Research Center, Goddard Spaceflight Center, Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, Langley Research Center, Marshall Space Flight Center and Stennis Space Center.
NASA previously named a facility after Katherine Johnson, who was among the agencys first Black women computer scientists.
Recently, there have been calls to renamed NASAs Stennis Space Center, which is named after the late Mississippi Sen. John C. Stennis.