She Now Has A Mountain On The Lunar Surface Named For Her: No Longer A "Hidden Figure" -- Melba Roy Mouton, Mathematician.

Though not specifically featured in the movie version of "Hidden Figures", she in fact (by 1961) was the original head of the team of mathematicians depicted there. She had graduated with high honors from Howard with an undergrad degree in physics, and a Master's in mathematics, and then worked for the US Army Map Service for nine years before joining NASA's Goddard program in 1959 -- shortly after the same was founded.

Sadly, she passed away in 1990, at age 61 of a brain tumor, but her name will henceforth forever be immortalized -- as it will appear on all the future charts of the Moon's surface -- as "Mount Mouton". Here's the bit, from NASA -- appearing as a part of the mid-Black History Month feature articles set:

. . .Melba Mouton was first employed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 1959, just a year after the space agency was established. She became the head mathematician who led a group of "human computers," who tracked the Echo 1 and 2 satellites, launched into Earth’s orbit in 1960 and 1964, respectively.

A few years later, in 1961, Mouton was the head programmer responsible for the Mission and Trajectory Analysis Division's Program Systems Branch -- the team who coded computer programs used to calculate spacecraft locations and trajectories, giving NASA the ability to track spacecraft while in orbit. . . .

Before retiring in 1973, after a career at NASA that spanned 14 years, Mouton had become the assistant chief of research programs for the Trajectory and Geodynamics Division at Goddard. In appreciation of her dedicated service and outstanding accomplishments, which culminated in the successful Apollo 11 Moon landing on July 20, 1969, she was recognized with an Apollo Achievement Award. . . .

Now you know -- smiling into the chilling sunshine here. . . do go, and be excellent -- to one another. [This is actually Katherine Johnson depicted below, as subtly-played by Ms. Taraji P. Henson:]



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