Katherine Johnson
1918 – 2020 American mathematician, NASA human computer
African-American mathematician whose orbital calculations were vital to early US crewed spaceflight.
- Religion
- Presbyterian
- Affiliations
- NACA, NASA
Katherine Johnson was a gifted mathematician who worked as a human computer at NACA and then NASA, in a segregated unit of Black women known as the West Computers. She calculated trajectories for Alan Shepard's first American spaceflight and, when electronic computers were new and distrusted, John Glenn asked that she personally verify the numbers before his orbital mission. Her work continued through the Apollo Moon landings and the Space Shuttle. Long overlooked, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, and her story reached a wide audience through the book and film Hidden Figures.
Connections
- associate of John Glenn — Asked her to check by hand the computer's orbital figures before his flight.
- associate of John Glenn — He requested she personally verify the trajectory numbers for his orbital flight.
In the timeline
- 1962 John Glenn orbits the Earth verified the orbital trajectory calculations
- 1969 Apollo 11 lands on the Moon contributed trajectory calculations