"They didn't have time to be concerned about what color I was." "NASA was a very professional organization," Johnson was quoted as saying in 2010. "And there will always, always be mathematics."īlack women at first used separate office, dining and bathroom facilities, but their abilities won them a level of acceptance ay NASA that was ahead of its time in the US. NASA said Johnson often told students that "some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering and technology. "Ms Johnson helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space even as she made huge strides that also opened doors for women and people of color," Bridenstine said in a statement.Įarly in her career, Johnson used just pen, paper and a slide rule to make calculations on which potentially-deadly missions depended.Īlong with colleagues, she plotted John Glenn's course when he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.īefore embarking on the mission, Glenn asked that Johnson personally re-check the computer-produced figures on a mechanical calculating machine - a task that took one and a half days of intense work. Two years later, Johnson - then aged 98 - attended the 2017 Oscars when "Hidden Figures" was nominated, taking the stage to receive a standing ovation amid thunderous applause. US president Barack Obama presented Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the country, in 2015. Her math talents later helped determine the trajectory of the Apollo 11 flight that landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in July 1969. Johnson and a colleague were the first to calculate the parameters of the suborbital 1961 flight of astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space. "She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said, honoring "her courage and the milestones we could not have reached without her." Johnson's calculations helped put the first man on the Moon in 1969, but she was little known until the Oscar-nominated 2016 movie that told the stories of three black women who worked at NASA. Katherine’s passion was maths.Washington, United States | Katherine Johnson, a ground-breaking black NASA mathematician whose life was portrayed in the movie "Hidden Figures," died on Monday aged 101, the space agency said. Katherine encouraged her grandchildren and students to pursue careers in science and technology. Two NASA facilities have been named in Katherine's honour and in 2015, the then US President Barack Obama awarded 97-year-old Katherine the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour. The 2016 film, ‘Hidden Figures’, tells the story of how the work of Katherine and other Black women helped NASA win the space race. Katherine co-authored 26 scientific papers and continued to work for NASA until she retired in 1986. She was part of the team that got the Apollo 13 crew back to Earth safely when their spacecraft malfunctioned. Katherine also helped calculate the trajectory for the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first people on the Moon. The astronaut John Glenn requested that Katherine check the calculations made by electronic computers before his spaceflight on Friendship 7 – “If she says they’re good,’” the astronaut said, “then I’m ready to go.” The path a rocket follows is also known as its trajectory. As a “computer”, she calculated the trajectory that put the first American in space. Katherine used her maths skills to calculate the paths of rockets through space. In 1953 she started a job carrying out mathematical calculations at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), later known as NASA. She then took a break from studying and teaching to have children. In 1939, Katherine became the first Black woman to study for a postgraduate qualification at West Virginia University. She graduated with the highest honours in 1937 and took a job teaching at a Black public school in Virginia. Katherine was curious about numbers from an early age and took every course in maths she could at West Virginia State College. Her mother was a teacher and her father a farmer and handyman. Katherine Johnson grew up in West Virginia, USA. Research Areas: Rocket Flightpaths, Trajectories, Orbital Mechanics
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