Today in the history of astronomy, the pioneering “hidden figure” is born.
Katherine Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2015, in honor of her long career as a NASA mathmatician. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
- Katherine Johnson, born in 1918, demonstrated exceptional mathematical proficiency, graduating high school at 14 and beginning college at a young age.
- She joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a precursor to NASA, in 1952, contributing significantly to early space programs as a member of the West Area Computing section.
- Her calculations were crucial for the trajectories of Alan Shepard’s and John Glenn’s missions, and she further contributed to the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.
- Johnson authored or co-authored 26 research reports, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and her story was documented in the biography “Hidden Figures,” before passing away in 2020 at the age of 101.
Born on Aug. 26, 1918, in West Virginia, Katherine Goble Johnson showed exceptional aptitude for mathematics from an early age. She skipped several grades, graduating high school by 14 and college by 18. Johnson was enrolled in West Virginia University in 1939 as one of the first three Black students to integrate the state’s graduate schools, but left before completing her degree to in order start her family. Then, in 1952, she heard about open positions in the all-Black West Area Computing section of the Langley laboratory for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (a precursor of NASA). Her work was a key part of the early space program: She calculated the trajectory of Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission and, at John Glenn’s request, checked the electronic computer’s calculations for his Friendship 7 orbital mission. She also contributed key calculations to the Apollo lunar missions and space shuttle programs. After becoming the first woman to be listed as a co-author on a Flight Research Division report, Johnson went on to author or co-author 26 research reports. She retired from NASA in 1986. In 2015, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2017, the file Hidden Figures, a biography of Johnson and fellow NASA trailblazers Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, was released. Johnson passed away at age 101 in 2020.
