She has said, “Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing, sometimes they have more imagination than men.” If you want to break it down, NASA put men on the moon but Katherine Johnson mapped their path and brought them back. Mind you back then electronic computations weren’t trusted as much as people-those people were mostly women-and Katherine Johnson was the most trusted person, when it came to calculating trajectories for the space program. Hear that, ladies? “It was intricate but it was possible.” Hold on to that too. Where it was when you took off, and where it was going to be when you got there, because you wanted to intersect the moon at a certain place. Equally important, you had to know the location of the moon. You had to consider the rotation of the earth. Later, when John Glenn was to be the first astronaut to go up into the atmosphere, Langley wanted him to come down in a specific geographic location and Katherine Johnson was the one who calculated his path.Īt one point she said, “It was an assignment and it was simple. She was a born mathematician with a brilliant mind. You’ve got to love that “it was easy” is something that Ms Johnson repeats. Her genius knowledge of geometry made calculating the trajectories of space ships “a very, very easy transition” she says. And of course she was was told “the girls don’t usually go.” But Katherine Johnson pushed, asking “Well, is there a law?” There wasn’t and her boss finally said “let her go.” Of course, when the space program started she asked for permission to go. And she has said she didn’t feel the segregation of the time, because at Langley the focus was on the research. That’s what Langley was at the time, a national advisory facility for aeronautics. When she applied to Langley in ’52 they had done their hiring for the year. Clayton first told her about becoming a research mathematician. This amazing woman graduated high school at 14, college at 18, and this after skipping several grades throughout her education.īut she didn’t begin to major in math until the second semester of her sophomore year in college-at what is now West Virginia State University. Let’s hop in the DeLorean and go back in time. She worked at NASA Langley from 1953 until she retired in 1986. Johnson particularly should be legendary. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, Christine Darden and Mary Jackson are so badass that the book about them, Margot Lee Shetterly’s “Hidden Figures” has been adapted into a movie starring Tarahji P. She and an entire department of Black-American female NASA super computers aided significantly in taking our astronauts up and bringing them home again. The retired mathematician was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Hang on to the word “computational” while I tell you more. Johnson Computational Research Facility at NASA’s Langley Research Center – located in Hampton, Virginia In early 2016 NASA dedicated a building to her: The Katherine G. But what about her? There were many hers in the story of the early days of NASA, when it was still called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. You’ve heard the names that form the legend of NASA: John Glenn, Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and so on. You know how we say, “rock it out”? How about space rocketing it out?
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