One of our nation’s most prolific “computers” just turned 100.
In the early days of NASA, it was the computing power of humans - reading data and performing mathematical calculations - that drove the space program. One of those “human computers” as they were called then has spent her life breaking down barriers in the service of nothing less our exploration of space. Katherine Johnson began her career at NASA (then referred to as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ or NACA) in 1953. NASA, following state and federal segregation laws, required Johnson and all other African American employees to use separate restrooms, eat, and work in different locations than their white coworkers. In fact, the office where Johnson initially worked was the all-black West Area Computing section at Langley laboratory. The group, called “Colored Computers,” was headed by fellow West Virginian Dorothy Vaughan. But Johnson's mathematical prowess and diligence were impossible to ignore.
NASA was eventually desegregated, but many barriers remained for women and African Americans. Women were not allowed to put their names on reports, even if the work was solely their own. In what must have been a proud moment of validation, Johnson became the first woman in her division to publish a report under her name (Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position, which detailed the equations that describe an orbital spaceflight where the craft’s landing position is specified.) This was the first time that a woman received author credit for a research report in the Flight Research Division. This was after a male colleague had refused to put his name on it stating that she had done the majority of the work.
Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1918. With her intense curiosity and mathematical brilliance, Johnson raced through school. By thirteen, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. At eighteen, she enrolled in the college, where she worked under mentor W.W. Schieffelin Claytor. Claytor, a math professor at the school, was the third African American to earn a PhD in Mathematics in the United States. Johnson graduated with highest honors in 1937 and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia.
She was then handpicked in 1939 as one of three students to help integrate the historically segregated graduate schools in West Virginia. Johnson and two male students were selected by West Virginia State’s president to be offered spots at the state’s premier school, West Virginia University. She left her teaching job and enrolled in the graduate math program. At the end of the first session, however, she decided to leave school to start a family with her husband. This was a common choice for women then. She eventually returned to teaching after her three daughters started school.
In 1952, a relative told her about open positions at the West Area Computing section. Johnson and her family moved to Newport News, Virginia so Johnson could pursue the position. Just two weeks into Johnson’s tenure, Dorothy Vaughan assigned her to a project in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division. Over the next few years, Johnson analyzed flight test data and even completed trajectory analysis for Freedom 7, America’s first human spaceflight. Ultimately, John Glenn refused to fly his orbits around the Earth unless the actual computer's calculations had been personally verified by Johnson. She also worked on the investigation of a plane crash caused by wake turbulence. It was during this time that her husband was diagnosed with cancer. He died in December 1956.
For the remainder of her career, Johnson continued with her calculations. She helped to map the Moon's surface in preparation for the 1969 landing, she created an observational system that allowed astronauts to identify their location more accurately, and, in one of her final projects; worked on a plan for a flight to Mars.
She retired in 1986 after a 35-year career at NASA. Her work not only contributed to sending the first American to space but also laid the groundwork for the Space Shuttle program and prepared NASA for the transition to using computers.
Johnson has started to receive the recognition she deserves. The popular 2016 movie Hidden Figures which told story of Johnson and other women mathematicians of color helped ensure that the story of Johnson and her colleagues at NASA is well recognized. The Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility was dedicated at NASA Langley that same year. The movie was based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. And on her 100th birthday in August 2018, Johnson returned to her alma mater, West Virginia State University, which unveiled a statue of Johnson and a STEM scholarship in her name. She earned five NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement awards for her outstanding work. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015 because of her groundbreaking career as a NASA “computer” and her significant contributions to sending the first successful manned space flights. There is also her undeniable service as a role model women scientists and women scientists of color.
Her contributions to space science are even more noteworthy because they were accomplished with the headwinds of widespread bias and obstacles. During the recent ceremony at WVSU, keynote speaker and former astronaut Dr. Yvonne Cagle said:"What makes Katherine so extraordinary is she not only prevailed while segregation failed, Dr. Johnson has continued to persevere and thrive with the gracious poise and clarity that defies mere words of explanation, let alone definition."
https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Figures-American-Untold-Mathematicians-ebook/dp/B0166JFFD0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1536404083&sr=8-5&keywords=Hidden+figures
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