_(2).jpg)
Katherine Johnson
1918–2020 · Mathematician
A NASA mathematician and former human computer whose precise trajectory calculations helped make some of America's earliest crewed spaceflights possible.
“Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing.”
Why is this scientist famous?
Calculating and verifying trajectories for historic NASA missions, including Alan Shepard's first American spaceflight, John Glenn's orbital mission and Apollo 11.
Katherine Johnson's mathematics helped guide several historic NASA missions. She performed trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's 1961 Freedom 7 flight and, in 1962, John Glenn asked her to check by hand the orbital calculations produced by NASA's electronic computers before his Friendship 7 mission. She later contributed important trajectory and navigation work to the Apollo programme.
Katherine's story
Early Life
Born Creola Katherine Coleman in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. She was a math prodigy: she was counting everything in sight by age four, and by ten she had completed middle school. Her county did not offer high school to Black students, so her family moved 120 miles so she could attend a high school that did.
In 1939, when West Virginia began integrating its graduate schools, Johnson was selected as one of three Black students offered places at West Virginia University. She enrolled in graduate mathematics but left after the first session to start a family.
Human Computer
After teaching for years, she joined NACA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA's predecessor) in 1953 as a "human computer" — one of a group of Black women mathematicians who performed complex calculations by hand. She quickly distinguished herself and asked to attend technical meetings that women had not previously attended, allowing her to become more directly involved in flight-research work.
Space Race
Johnson calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard's 1961 suborbital flight — America's first crewed space mission. For John Glenn's 1962 orbital flight, the astronaut specifically asked for Johnson to double-check the electronic computer's numbers by hand before the mission. She also worked on the Apollo 11 Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programme. In 1960, Johnson and engineer Ted Skopinski co-authored a research report describing equations for orbital spaceflight; NASA records it as the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division received credit as an author of a research report.
Recognition
For decades, her contributions went unrecognised outside NASA. That changed when the 2016 book and film "Hidden Figures" told her story to the world. In 2015, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour.
What did they discover?
Freedom 7 Trajectory
Performed trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's 1961 Freedom 7 mission, which made him the first American in space.
Friendship 7 Verification
At John Glenn's request, she checked by hand the orbital calculations produced by NASA's electronic computers before his 1962 Friendship 7 flight.
Apollo 11 Trajectory and Navigation
Contributed trajectory calculations for Apollo 11 and worked on methods for synchronising the Lunar Module with the lunar-orbiting Command and Service Module, as well as backup navigation work.
Amazing facts
Before his 1962 orbital flight, John Glenn asked NASA engineers to have Katherine Johnson check the computer's numbers by hand.
She was the first woman in NASA's Flight Research Division to receive co-authorship credit on a research report.
She graduated from high school at 14 and college at 18, graduating summa cum laude.
In 1939, she was selected as one of three Black students to help integrate West Virginia University's graduate school.
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 at age 97.
NASA named a building after her: the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility.
Timeline
Born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Selected as one of three Black students offered places at West Virginia University's newly integrated graduate school
Joined NACA as a "human computer"
Co-authored an orbital-flight research report with Ted Skopinski, becoming the first woman in the Flight Research Division credited as an author of a research report
Calculated trajectory for Alan Shepard's first American spaceflight
Verified calculations for John Glenn's orbital flight
Worked on Apollo 11 Moon landing calculations
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Died at age 101
Awards & honours
Related Super Scientists
Alan Turing
1912–1954 · Mathematician & Computer Scientist
Making foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, and playing a major role in Allied codebreaking during the Second World War.
Ada Lovelace
1815–1852 · Mathematician
Publishing influential 1843 Notes on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, including a detailed algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers and a visionary description of uses beyond arithmetic.
Dorothy Vaughan
1910–2008 · Mathematician & Computer Programmer
NACA's first Black supervisor and a pioneering FORTRAN programmer at NASA.
