NEW YORK -- The hidden figures of the space race were recognized with Congress’ highest honor at a medal ceremony on Wednesday.

The Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the families of Katherine Johnson , Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Christine Darden at the U.S. Capitol. Darden witnessed the ceremony from her Connecticut home.

A medal was also presented to all the women who served as mathematicians, engineers and “human computers” in the U.S. space program from the 1930s to 1970s.

"By honoring them, we pay tribute to the very best of our country's spirit,” said author Margot Lee Shetterly, whose book “Hidden Figures” was adapted into a film in 2016.

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics – a predecessor to NASA – hired hundreds of women to perform calculations for space missions. The Black women hired worked in a segregated unit of female mathematicians at what is now NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia.

Johnson's hand-written calculations aided John Glenn in becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 – the nation's highest civilian honor.

Vaughan became NASA's first Black supervisor, while Jackson made history as the first Black female engineer. Darden's groundbreaking research on sonic booms is widely recognized.

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