KATHERINE JOHNSON IN 1960
Posted on 02/24/2020 8:58:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Kathrine Johnson's work included calculating trajectories, launch windows and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon.
Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a mission to Mars.
In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson as a lead character in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.
In 2019, Johnson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal
I know it was the 60s, but what difference does color make?
AP wants to keep the plantation secure.
She also showed IBM their card flaws
Brilliant woman
If you showed me either of those pictures without telling me who it was, I would assume it was a white woman. Looks like the media is still going by the old one drop rule.
Nothing but blessings to this outstanding American.
It’s sad the left just uses black people as props and pawns.
Especially the best of them.
“I know it was the 60s, but what difference does color make?
AP wants to keep the plantation secure.
Exactly correct. She was there because she was damn good. She just happened to black. The astronauts trusted her calculations. That is good enough for me.
1/1024 at LEAST
A brilliant shining star.
She don’t look black. She was really smart though! Great American!!!
yeah too bad she’s WHITE!!!
She as black as I am Irish :)
"The girl" always bugged me...and I was born in 1951. It was so demeaning to me. Or "I'll have my girl do it."
What an amazing woman. I look forward to watching the movie. It's one of the very few things Obumbler did right.
“If you showed me either of those pictures without telling me who it was, I would assume it was a white woman. Looks like the media is still going by the old one drop rule.”
Yep! Felt the same way.
An inspiring story. A great American. Loved the movie, too.
Woah! I was expecting the black ladies from the movie. She’s 15-20 percent black, tops, because of that hair and face structure.
So basically she double checked the correct calculations of a computer and that makes her a national hero? I don’t doubt her intelligence but this is making making a mountain out of a molehill.
From my experience, except in male dominated industries, women with proper credentials and career focus did quite well for themselves. Same can be said for black people.
Almost without exception, black kids in my schools with parents who were typical middle class were treated with respect and were the most popular kids in school.
It was more about traditional roles than anything else. People just did not see women as soldiers, police officers and firemen and very few women wanted to take a very stressful career path and choose to get married and have kids as a priority.
Can you do math at this level? Note the co-author.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19980227091
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19980227091.pdf
Recently met an elderly black woman who worked at NASA as a computer scientist in the 70’s. She said to me “One of the worst day of my life was when I dropped the atmosphere of Mars on the floor!”
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