26 August is reserved to Katherine Johnson

26 August is reserved to Katherine Johnson
Happy birthday Katherine Johnson! The brilliant mathematician and physicist who calculated the trajectories for NASA's most historic missions turns 98 today.

Born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson "graduated from high school at 14 and college at 18 at a time when African Americans often did not go beyond the eighth grade," NASA administrator Charles Bolden wrote in a recent tribute. Johnson did graduate work in mathematics at West Virginia University. She had embarked on a career as an elementary career teacher when the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which later became NASA) recruited her to compute the trajectories and orbits of spacecraft. Johnson calculated the trajectory of Alan Shepard's mission in which he became the first American in space.

In the early 1960s, when NASA switched to the fully computerized calculation of orbital mechanics, Johnson verified the calculations. She did the math for John Glenn's orbit around Earth and the Apollo 11 mission that landed on the Moon.

In November 2015 Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She, along with other black female mathematicians at NASA, will be the focus of an upcoming book and movie called "Hidden Figures."

Reference:
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-loved-to-count

Movie reference:
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-loved-to-count

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