KATHERINE JOHNSON IN 1960
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.
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.
A brilliant shining star.
"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.
An inspiring story. A great American. Loved the movie, too.
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!”
I saw the movie *Hidden Figures*.
It was very good.
I remember being glued to the TV throughout the Apollo 13 failed moon mission. It's problem was coming back from the moon, and none of the orbital calculations on how to do that had ever been performed.
The problem occurred when an oxygen tank exploded on the trip to the moon. There was not enough oxygen in the command module to return home alive. NASA (back when it was a REAL engineering organization) and the crew figured out a way to jerry rig flow of the oxygen from the lunar module to sustain those on board. However, that required returning to earth with the lunar module attached. This required a very precise rocket burn while the spaceship was BEHIND THE MOON, out of communication with earth. If it didn't start at the precise time, and last the exact number of seconds, the crew would be flung into outer space, never to return.
There had never been calculations made for this event that included the mass and structure of the returning contraption. It included the entire lunar module and its attaching structure, along with the command module and the damaged oxygen tank structure. It had to be done as soon as the vehicle reached the moon, in order to get back with sufficient oxygen. NASA had essentially two days, over a weekend to figure all this out. In addition to Mrs. Johnson and her fellow "computers", NASA also commandeered virtually every available IBM mainframe in the US for help with this task. They were successful, and the crew returned safely.
To put this into perspective, whatever device you are reading this on right now, has far-far more computing capability than NASA had available in the entire US, on that fateful weekend.
Look are her hair and skin color.
We can see where she got the math gene.
OK Boomer.