Katherine Johnson
August 26, 1918 -February 24, 2020
Piooneer
PHYSICIST, SPACE SCIENTIST, Mathematician
Calculated the trajectory for Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon.
Education: West Virginia State University-graduated summa cum laude in 1937, with degrees in math and French. In 1938, Katherine became the first African American woman to desegregate the graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Employe by Nasa at the Langley Research Center’s Guidance and Navigation Department Katherine was given a position as a computer( before computers ever existed the position entailed precise work of measuring and calculating the results of wind tunnel tests in 1935.
Katherine calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Even after NASA began using electronic computers, John Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations made by the new electronic computers before his flight aboard Friendship 7 – the mission on which he became the first American to orbit the Earth. She continued to work at NASA until 1986 combining her math talent with electronic computer skills. Her calculations proved as critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program, as they did to those first steps on the country’s journey into space.
Johnson died at a retirement home in Newport News on February 24, 2020, at age 101.
She has received numerous honorary doctorates degrees and awards in her life time.
HONORS
1971, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
1980, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
1984, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
1985, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
1986, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
1998, Honorary Doctor of Laws, from SUNY Farmingdale
1999, West Virginia State College Outstanding Alumnus of the Year
2006, Honorary Doctor of Science by the Capitol college, Laurel, Maryland
2010, Honorary Doctorate of Science from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
Apollo Group Achievement Award – this award included one of only 300 flags flown to the moon on board the Apollo 11
Katheine Johnson co-authored 26 scientific papers
1967 Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations team award for pioneering work in the field of navigation problems supporting the five spacecraft that orbited and mapped the moon iin preparation for the Apollo program.
November 24,2015 Prsidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack .H. Obama.
On May 5, 2016, the new Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility was formally dedicated at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. This occurred on the 55th anniversary of Alan Shepard’s historic rocket launch and splash down, which Johnson helped make possible.
Katherine work history
1936–1952 Teacher in Rural Virginia and West Virginia high schools including elementary.
1952–1953 Substitute math teacher for Newport News, VA public schools
1953–1986 NASA Langley Research Center, Virginia
1953–1958 Computer (mathematician), Langley Research Center with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)
1958–1986, Aerospace Technologist, NASA
Resource Nasa