Everyone knows the famous story of NASA’s Apollo 11 blasting off in 1969 to become the first mission to put humans on the Moon, with Neil Armstrong leading the charge and being the first to set foot on it. To launch a flight to the moon is no ordinary feat, and it required an equally extraordinary set of teams. This is where Katherine Johnson comes into the picture; she played a vital role in the success of major space explorations, including that of Apollo 11. Handpicked as one of the three Black students to integrate West Virginia University’s graduate school, Johnson has become widely recognized as one of the most celebrated black women in STEM today.
From West Virginia to the Stars
As a woman of color in a male-dominated workplace, Johnson became a symbol of brilliance and determination. Her work includes mapping out the flight path for Apollo 11, helping guide the astronauts safely to the lunar surface. She also became a key mathematician at NASA whose work was crucial to early US crewed space missions.
Born in 1918, Johnson loved numbers and mathematics as a child. Her brilliance accelerated her through several grades, and she attended high school by the time she was 13. She graduated with the highest honors in 1937 and decided to teach. By 1939, she enrolled in the graduate math program at West Virginia University, leaving her teaching job. After marrying and starting a family, she began work at NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1953, analyzing flight test data and coauthoring important research reports. Johnson became the first woman to receive credit as an author of a research report in the Flight Research Division.
She contributed to critical calculations for early space missions, including Alan Shepard’s 1961 mission, Freedom 7. She also worked on John Glenn’s 1962 orbital mission, where Glenn personally relied on her manual calculations. Even after the computer crunched the numbers, Glenn showed his trust in Johnson by asking her to verify them through manual calculation.
Inspiring generations
Johnson proved herself a role model, continuing to inspire generations. In 2015, at age 97, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contributions to space exploration. Her legacy remains untainted as NASA Administrator James Bridenstine offered condolences when she passed in 2020. He declared, “She was an American hero, and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten.”
NASA’s Langley Research Center has opened the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility in honor of her legacy. Johnson was not only an inspiration for her brilliance with numbers, but she also challenged gender bias and racism, making her one of the most inspiring women to look up to.
Photo credit: The images used are owned by NASA and have been made available for press usage.
Sources: Margot Lee Shetterly (NASA) / Tucker Toole (National Geographic) / National Women’s Hall of Fame / NASA
