![]() ![]() Johnson attended the 2017 Oscars ceremony, joining the film’s cast in presenting an award for documentaries, and was given a standing ovation. They were little known to the public for decades but gained overdue recognition when the book “Hidden Figures” was published and the 2016 Oscar-nominated movie hit the screens. Johnson and her black colleagues at the fledgling NASA were known as “computers” when that term was used not for a programmed electronic device but for a person who did computations. ![]() In 2016, NASA named a research facility for Johnson in her hometown of Hampton, Virginia, and a year later her alma mater, West Virginia State, marked her 100th birthday in August 2018 by establishing a scholarship in her name and erecting a statue. “She’s one of the greatest minds ever to grace our agency or our country,” then NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said when Johnson was presented the presidential medal. Johnson was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Barack Obama in 2015 and in 2016 he cited her in his State of the Union Address as an example of America’s spirit of discovery. “She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten.” “Our NASA family is sad to learn the news that Katherine Johnson passed away this morning at 101 years old,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine posted to Twitter. Johnson is a pioneer in American space history. Johnson during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington November 24, 2015. President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to NASA mathematician Katherine G. Katherine Johnson died in 2020 at the age of 101.FILE PHOTO: U.S. ![]() "But when they went to computers, they called over and said, 'tell her to check and see if the computer trajectory they had calculated was correct.' So I checked it and it was correct." For her contributions to the space programs and for blazing a trail for women and African Americans at NASA, she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian award, by President Obama in 2015. "You could do much more, much faster on computer," Johnson explains. After NASA began using computers, she would double check their calculations to ensure they were accurate. Katherine was assertive, asking to be included in editorial meetings (where no women had gone before.) She simply told people she had done the work and that she belonged."Įarly in her career, Johnson played a critical role in early spaceflight by calculating flight trajectories, including the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. Katherine's knowledge of analytic geometry helped make quick allies of male bosses and colleagues to the extent that, 'they forgot to return me to the pool.' While the racial and gender barriers were always there, Katherine says she ignored them. Then one day, Katherine was temporarily assigned to help the all-male flight research team. Katherine has referred to the women in the pool as virtual 'computers who wore skirts.' Their main job was to read the data from the black boxes of planes and carry out other precise mathematical tasks. She became one of the first women to join the space agency.Īccording to the National Visionary Leadership Project, "At first she worked in a pool of women performing math calculations. After graduating from college summa cum laude with degrees in French and mathematics, she learned that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which later became NASA, was looking for women to work as "computers". The only school for African Americans in her small West Virginia town stopped at the 8th grade so to ensure she could continue her education, she moved with her mother and siblings to a larger city 120 miles away while her father remained on the family farm. Johnson excelled in school as a child - graduating from high school at 14 and college at 18 - but her early access to education was challenging. Pioneering mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose skills in celestial navigation were renowned during her 33-year career at NASA, calculated - by hand - the launch window and trajectory for Shepard's space voyage aboard Freedom 7 in on May 5, 1961. Today marks the 62nd anniversary of Alan Shepard becoming the first American in space - in celebration of this momentous milestone, we're honoring a woman who played a critical role in making this historic flight possible. ![]()
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