Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson
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Name	Katherine Johnson
Caption	Johnson at NASA's Langley Research Center in 1983
Birth name	Katherine Coleman
Birth date	26 August 1918
Birth place	White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Death date	24 February 2020
Death place	Newport News, Virginia
Education	West Virginia State University (BS), West Virginia University (graduate coursework)
Occupation	Mathematician
Employer	NASA, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
Known for	Orbital mechanics calculations for NASA space missions
Spouse	James Goble (m. 1939; died 1956), Jim Johnson (m. 1959; died 2019)
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom (2015), Congressional Gold Medal (2019), NASA Group Achievement Award

Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics were critical to the success of the first and subsequent crewed United States spaceflights. Her work at NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, spanned three decades, during which she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and contributed to programs including Project Mercury, the Apollo program, and the Space Shuttle program. Johnson's story, along with those of her colleagues Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, was brought to wider public attention through the book and film Hidden Figures.

Early life and education

Born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson demonstrated exceptional mathematical ability from a young age. She attended high school on the campus of West Virginia State Institute, a historically black college, graduating at 14. She then enrolled at West Virginia State University, where she was mentored by mathematician William Claytor, who created advanced mathematics courses just for her. Johnson graduated summa cum laude in 1937 with degrees in mathematics and French. In 1939, she was selected as one of the first three African American students to attend graduate school at West Virginia University, enrolling in its mathematics program at the Morgantown campus.

Career at NASA

Johnson began her career in 1953 at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, working in the segregated West Area Computing unit led by Dorothy Vaughan. When the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was incorporated into the newly formed NASA in 1958, Johnson was assigned to the Space Task Group. Her analytical geometry skills were quickly recognized, and she became known for her meticulous work on trajectory analysis. She co-authored a report on orbital mechanics in 1960, becoming one of the first women in the Flight Research Division to receive credit as an author.

Contributions to spaceflight

Johnson's most famous contributions involved calculations for the first American crewed spaceflights. For Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard's 1961 mission, she calculated the trajectory for his suborbital flight. When electronic computers were used for the orbital mission of John Glenn, the astronaut specifically requested that Johnson verify the machine-generated numbers, famously stating, "Get the girl to check the numbers." Her calculations for his 1962 Friendship 7 mission were pivotal. She later worked on the Apollo program, calculating the trans-lunar injection burn trajectory for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon and performing backup calculations that helped synchronize the Apollo Lunar Module with the Command/Service Module. Her work also contributed to the early planning of the Space Shuttle program and Earth resources satellites.

Recognition and legacy

Johnson received numerous accolades late in life, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Barack Obama in 2015. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. NASA dedicated the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility at Langley Research Center in 2017. Her life and work, alongside those of Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, were celebrated in Margot Lee Shetterly's book Hidden Figures, which was adapted into an acclaimed 2016 film. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and has had buildings, scholarships, and a NASA spacecraft, the SS Katherine Johnson Cygnus resupply vehicle, named in her honor.

Personal life

Johnson was married twice, first to James Francis Goble in 1939, with whom she had three daughters: Joylette, Katherine, and Constance. After Goble's death in 1956, she married James A. "Jim" Johnson, a United States Army officer, in 1959. She was a lifelong member of Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia. Johnson died at a retirement home in Newport News in February 2020 at the age of 101. Her contributions continue to be cited as a seminal part of NASA history and the broader narrative of African-American history in STEM fields.

Category:American mathematicians Category:NASA people Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients