Katherine Johnson

A mathematician who worked for nasa and was instrumental in the success of the united states’ manned space flights,

Katherine Johnson worked in the all-black West Area Computing section of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, later to become NASA) analyzing data from flight tests and working on the investigation of a plane crash caused by wake turbulence. In 1961, she did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepherd’s Freedom 7 mission, and she was the first woman to co-author a research report when she helped write a report about orbital space flight.

In 1962, Johnson did the work that she is best known for: helping calculate the trajectory of John Glenn’s orbital mission around the earth. Glenn famously asked the mission’s engineers to have Johnson double check the computer’s numbers by hand because he trusted her more than the electronic calculating machine. Johnson continued to do great groundbreaking work for NASA until her retirement in 1986, and in 2015, President Barak Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She passed away in 2020 at the age of 101.

The movie Hidden Figures is based on Katherine Johnson’s work on John Glenn’s flight to space, and can be seen on Disney Plus, but you can check out the trailer here. Read more about Katherine’s incredible career below.