Katherine Johnson: The Mathematician Who Launched Astronauts into Space and Women into STEM 🚀👩‍🚀

In the vast expanse of the cosmos, where men first dreamed of reaching the stars, Katherine Johnson calculated the path that would get them there. This story isn't just about trajectories and orbits; it's about a woman whose brilliance in mathematics helped break the barriers of space and gender.

Johnson's journey began in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where her curiosity and intelligence shone from an early age. Despite encountering segregation and sexism, she charted a course that would lead her to NASA, where her skills became indispensable to the success of the U.S. space program. Her calculations were critical to the success of the Mercury missions, including John Glenn's pioneering orbital flight, for which he specifically requested Johnson verify the computer's numbers. "If she says they're good," Glenn said, "then I'm ready to go."

But Johnson's contributions went beyond Mercury. She also played a role in the Apollo missions, including the first lunar landing, and her work on orbital mechanics laid the groundwork for the Space Shuttle program and plans for a Mars mission.

Her legacy is a beacon for women and people of color in STEM, symbolizing the power of intelligence and perseverance to overcome societal constraints. Johnson's story teaches us that the path to the stars is paved with determination, hard work, and an unwavering belief in one's own abilities.

Katherine Johnson's calculations helped lead humanity to the moon, but her impact extends far beyond the numbers. She charted a course for future generations of women in STEM, proving that the sky is not the limit—it's just the beginning. As we look up at the stars, we remember her legacy, not just as a mathematician, but as a trailblazer who launched us into a new era of exploration and equality.

Today In History Katherine Johnson was handpicked to be one of three black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools is something that many people would consider one of their life’s most notable moments, but it’s just one of several breakthroughs that have marked Katherine Johnson’s long and remarkable life. Born August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, her intense curiosity and brilliance with numbers vaulted her ahead several grades in school. By 13, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. At 18, she enrolled in the college itself, where she made quick work of the school’s math curriculum and found a mentor in math professor W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics. In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Johnson was called upon to do the work that she would become most known for. The complexity of the orbital flight had required the construction of a worldwide communications network, linking tracking stations around the world to IBM computers in Washington, Cape Canaveral in Florida, and Bermuda. The computers had been programmed with the orbital equations that would control the trajectory of the capsule in Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission from liftoff to splashdown, but the astronauts were wary of putting their lives in the care of the electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts. As a part of the preflight checklist, Glenn asked engineers to “get the girl”—Johnson—to run the same numbers through the same equations that had been programmed into the computer, but by hand, on her desktop mechanical calculating machine. “If she says they’re good,’” Katherine Johnson remembers the astronaut saying, “then I’m ready to go.” Glenn’s flight was a success, and marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space. CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #katherinejohnson #hiddenfigures #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke #nasa https://www.instagram.com/p/ChuFx-4uR6Q/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

New sketch for the board at work celebrating Women's History Month. ✨️ Come by Starbucks on Golden State and Canal to see in person. @starbucksgoldenstate #womenshistorymonth #celebrate #fridakahlo #mayaangelou #katherinejohnson #malalayousafzai #ruthbaderginsburg #sketch #drawing #draw #starbucksboard #chalkpaint #redsketch #womenshistory #mixedmedia (at Turlock, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpcCdwsusGl/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Celebrating Black History Month! Check back every day for new highlighted figures, creators, businesses, or media.

#Herstory #UnDíaComoHoy
#DorothyVaughan (Kansas City, Misuri, 20/9/1910 – Hampton, EEUU, 10/11/2008), #matemática #afroamericana que trabajó en la #NACA, agencia que precedió a la #NASA. Fue la primera #supervisora y #mánager afroamericana de la NASA. Antes de entrar en la NASA en 1943, gracias a una Orden Ejecutiva de Franklin D. Roosevelt que obligaba a no discriminar por raza o religión para defender la industria, fue #profesora de matemáticas en una escuela secundaria. Una vez incorporada al centro de investigación, creía que sería un trabajo temporal hasta el final de la guerra, pero siguió y en 1949 se hizo cargo de la dirección de la West Area Computers, un grupo de trabajo segregado compuesto exclusivamente de mujeres afroamericanas, especialistas en matemáticas. Este grupo fue originalmente requerido a utilizar instalaciones separadas para el almuerzo o los baños, de manera que no usaran el mismo que las mujeres blancas. Con el tiempo estas matemáticas se distinguieron individualmente y en grupo por sus aportes en casi todas las áreas de investigaciones en Langley. Vaughan intervino en favor de las mujeres blancas de otros grupos de computación que ella creía que merecían ascensos o aumentos de sueldo. Encabezó el grupo West Computing hasta que junto a miembros de su grupo se unió la nueva División de Análisis y Computación que ya era diversa en raza y sexo luego de que en 1958, cuando la NACA hizo la transición a NASA, las instalaciones segregadas fueran abolidas. Se especializó durante el resto de su carrera en computación y en programación en FORTRAN. Trabajó en la División de Análisis y Computación del Centro de Investigación de Langley, y también participó en las pruebas del proyecto Scout (Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system) en la instalaciones de la Wallops Flight Facility. En su última década en la NASA trabajó mucho con #KatherineJohnson y #MaryJackson, quienes trabajaron en su grupo de calculadoras afroamericanas antes de ser transferidas a otras áreas, para trabajar en las ecuaciones para poner en órbita al astronauta John Glenn. Se retiró de la NASA en 1971. 👀 Hidden Figures #efemérides #educarenigualdad #schooloffeminism https://www.instagram.com/p/CiuF7_3jqo4/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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For today’s lesson, we’re delving into the life and legacy of #KatherineJohnson. 🚀

#BlackHistory101 #BINBHM

Happy Birthday 🎂 In Heaven

To The American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist".

In 2017, A Movie Based On The Untold True Story Of The African American Women Who Helped Put Men Into Outer Space Was Released by 20th Century Fox

Known as Hidden Figures starting TARAJI P HENSON as The Legendary Mathematician Herself

She Was Born On August 26th, 1918

& Passed Away In February 2020

She was 101 Years Old

Today would have been her 105th Birthday 🎂

Happy 105th Birthday 🎂 In Heaven

Ms. Katherine Creola Johnson

Thank You for Helping Us Soar To The Heavens #KatherineJohnson #HiddenFigures

Katherine Johnson, nữ khoa học gia được mệnh danh là “máy tính sống” của NASA mất ở tuổi 101

Bài viết mới nhất: Katherine Johnson, nữ khoa học gia được mệnh danh là “máy tính sống” của NASA mất ở tuổi 101

Thời kỳ đấy, sự phân biệt nam nữ và chủng tộc ở NASA vẫn còn rất nghiêm trọng, chỉ những phi hành gia và khoa học gia nam giới da tr���ng mới được xuất hiện trước công chúng. Nếu ko với sự chuẩn xác trong từng phép tính của Katherine Johnson, cùng nhóm những nhà …

#Blog #CôngNghệ, #KatherineJohnson, #KhoaHọc, #MáyTínhSống, #NASA, #NữKhoaHọc, #TàuVũTrụ DauTuTuDau: https://daututudau.vn/katherine-johnson-nu-khoa-hoc-gia-duoc-menh-danh-la-may-tinh-song-cua-nasa-mat-o-tuoi-101/

Rest In Peace, NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson, 101, and thank you for your incredible contributions to math, science, space exploration and the culture. A “hidden figure” no more! #legend #nasa🚀 #katherinejohnson https://www.instagram.com/p/B89EYpHFSSd/?igshid=16uali0kbxnj8

Black History Fact: Even at the age of eighteen, Katherine Johnson graduated from college. She oversaw NASA's calculations that put astronauts in orbit in the 1960s and on the moon in 1969. There was a book and film about Johnson's story that year. Johnston began teaching math and French in the late 1930s. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics hired "computers" in 1952 to perform and double-check technological calculations. Johnson was hired at Hampton's Langley Research Center. Johnson surprised her superiors with her curiosity and boldness. "The women did as instructed." “They didn't ask any questions.” A human into space was one of Johnson's tasks when NACA reformed into NASA in 1958. The following year, she remarried Navy and Army commander James A. Johnson. "The early trajectory was a parabola," Johnson said. In the beginning, they stated where they wanted the capsule to fall. 'Allow me.' Numerous awards were given to Johnson. His achievements include the NASA Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations team award in 1967 and the National Technical Association's Mathematician of the Year award in 1997. Awarded honorary degrees from SUNY Farmingdale, Capitol College in Maryland, Old Dominion, and West Virginia University. Goble fathered Joyette, Katherine, and Constance Johnson. Johnson died on Feb. 24, 2020. She was 101. A QUESTION FOR EVERYONE... WAS SCIENCE ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECTS IN SCHOOL? WHAT IS ONE FOND MEMORY YOU CAN SHARE? Please like, comment, and share this post. Sharing is caring 😁 #365DaysOfBlackHistory #BlackHistoryFacts #KatherineJohnson #BlackScientist #ShowThyselfApproved #KnowledgeIsPower #EachOneTeachOne #BLM (at Rise Up Financial Freedom Solutions LLC) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRy29Vmh5IX/?utm_medium=tumblr

“I don’t have a feeling of inferiority. Never had. I’m as good as anybody, but no better.” - Katherine Johnson Representation is very important. I mean seriously, how many of you remember back in grade school when teachers would make you do a project during Black History Month on a black historical figure. And everyone would do the same three people. Martin, Malcolm, and Rosa. As if Black folks haven’t done anything else. When our own history is being marginalized to only hitting the highlights, or slavery, we don’t even know how important we’ve been to the world. Until Hidden Figures came out, I legitimately had never heard of today’s entry. I did not know that black women played such a pivotal role in America’s Space race. Our history is America’s History and I really wish more people would accept that. It is with great shame that I did not know, but great pride in now know that mathematician #KatherineJohnson is today’s entry in my #BlackHistoryMonth celebration of cultural icons. #kennethjfranklin https://www.instagram.com/p/CLfm1lRBuwc/?igshid=1158q74lawhhc

Today In History

Katherine Johnson was handpicked to be one of three black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools is something that many people would consider one of their life’s most notable moments, but it’s just one of several breakthroughs that have marked Katherine Johnson’s long and remarkable life.

Born August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, her intense curiosity and brilliance with numbers vaulted her ahead several grades in school. By 13, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. At 18, she enrolled in the college itself, where she made quick work of the school’s math curriculum and found a mentor in math professor W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics.

In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Johnson was called upon to do the work that she would become most known for. The complexity of the orbital flight had required the construction of a worldwide communications network, linking tracking stations around the world to IBM computers in Washington, Cape Canaveral in Florida, and Bermuda. The computers had been programmed with the orbital equations that would control the trajectory of the capsule in Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission from liftoff to splashdown, but the astronauts were wary of putting their lives in the care of the electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts.

As a part of the preflight checklist, Glenn asked engineers to “get the girl”—Johnson—to run the same numbers through the same equations that had been programmed into the computer, but by hand, on her desktop mechanical calculating machine. “If she says they’re good,’” Katherine Johnson remembers the astronaut saying, “then I’m ready to go.” Glenn’s flight was a success, and marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space.

CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #katherinejohnson #hiddenfigures #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke #nasa

In memory of #KatherineJohnson the pioneer @nasa scientist that died today 101 old. We need heroes like her #doll #dolls #fashiondoll #fashiondolls #dollstagram #dollcollector #dollphotography #dollphotogallery #dollcollection #dudeswithdolls #dollsphotography #nasa #science #inmemoriam #mattel #barbie https://www.instagram.com/p/B89TClAJ0gR/?igshid=6qw5jh9mehyx

Via @abcnews_au "Johnson helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space even as she made huge strides that also opened doors for women and people of color," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. "Her dedication and skill as a mathematician helped put humans on the moon and before that made it possible for our astronauts to take the first steps in space that we now follow on a journey to Mars." Rest in Peace, Scientist and human computer Katherine Johnson. posted on Instagram - https://ift.tt/37WRw3w

Rest In Peace to Katherine Johnson, an underrated mathematician. I’m so glad that her story got out there before she left us even though it was well overdue 😩🙏🏾 #katherinejohnson #melaninqueen https://www.instagram.com/p/B89P3QlHwa2/?igshid=1v0dtfn9xo20w

Sleep in peace Katherine Johnson NASA Legend 🕊 #KatherineJohnson, #NASA #mathematician depicted in '#HiddenFigures,' passes away at 101 "Johnson helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space even as she made huge strides that also opened doors for women and people of color in the universal human quest to explore space," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. He called Johnson "an American hero." Johnson was portrayed by #TarajiPHenson in the Oscar-nominated 2016 film about trailblazing #blackwomen whose work at NASA was integral during the space race. The film, based on a book by the same name, also starred #OctaviaSpencer as the mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and #JanelleMonáe as the engineer Mary Jackson. The work of the women altered the country's history but their names were largely unknown until the movie received acclaim. Jackson died in 2005, and Vaughan died in 2008. Johnson began working at NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1953 at the Langley Laboratory in Virginia. She said her greatest contribution to space exploration was making "the calculations that helped sync Project Apollo's Lunar Lander with the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module." In other words, helping to put men on the moon in 1969. She was also the first woman in the Flight Research Division to receive credit as an author of a research report for her work with Ted Skopinski on detailing the equations describing an orbital spaceflight. She did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's 1961 mission Freedom 7, which was America's first human spaceflight, according to NASA. She was also known for work that greatly contributed to the first American orbital spaceflight, piloted by John Glenn in 1962. She worked on both the space shuttle and the Earth Resources Satellite programs, in addition to authoring or coauthoring 26 research reports. "Glenn's flight was a success, and marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space," NASA says. Johnson worked for NASA for more than three decades, retiring in 1986. Source: NBCNEWS https://www.instagram.com/p/B9CCa9EAOO0/?igshid=1s9yuj5kt7084