February 10th, 2021

Katherine was a mathematician who worked three decades for NASA and is best known for calculating the flight trajectory for numerous monumental space missions. Her story is documented in the book and film Hidden Figures.

Johnson, a gifted student early in life graduated high school at 14 and college at 18 and later became the first black woman to attend West Virginia University as she was accepted into the graduate mathematics program. The school would go on to create a special course just for her in analytic geometry.

Shortly after starting her career at NASA Johnson worked in an all male flight division and had a major hand in calculating the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard’s historic first space flight for an American, John Glenn’s first earth orbit, and Apollo 11’s trip to the moon.

Every time engineers would hand me their equations to evaluate, I would do more than what they'd asked.

I didn't allow their side-eyes and annoyed looks to intimidate or stop me. I also would persist even if I thought I was being ignored. If I encountered something I didn't understand, I'd just ask. … I just ignored the social customs that told me to stay in my place.

Later she would help develop the space shuttle program and become co-author of 26 research reports. Amongst numerous awards she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2015.