Katherine Johnson: NASA Space Scientist

Katherine Johnson was born in 1918 in West Virginia and from a young age, her love and knack for numbers were quite apparent and put her ahead of other people at her age. At the age of 13, she was already attending high school and later enrolled in college at the age of 18 where she was able to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics. In 1937, she graduated and took part in a job in Virginia teaching at a black public school. Dr. John W. Davis selected her as well as two other black men to teach at West Virginia University which she later left and eventually decided to start a family.

Taking time off from her job, she raised her kids until they were old enough to manage themselves, and in 1953, she began working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA which later became NASA). She was quickly assigned to a project in the Flight Research Division where she spent four years analyzing flight test data and was tasked to be a part of the investigation related to a plane crash that occurred due to turbulence. 1957 was one of the most life-changing moments for Johnson and also, the year of Sputnik’s launch where she supplied some of the math documents crucial to its launch. Johnson was super interested in studying how to use geometry for space travel and was able to figure out the paths for how the spacecraft would orbit around Earth and eventually land on the Moon. This math was used by NASA to send astronauts into orbit around the Earth and later even sent astronauts to the moon and back. Her love and interest in math have clearly had a big impact on our world and the space industry. After 33 years of hard work, she retired in 1986 and was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.