Katherine Johnson, passed away on Monday February 24, 2020 at 101 years old. Katherine was portrayed by Taraji P Henson in the movie, “Hidden Figures”, is no longer a hidden figure. It’s a blessing that she was able to live to see herself no longer be a hidden figure for the many huge accomplishments of helping America progress in successful space travel.
She started at (NACA) National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ Langley lab in 1953. NACA became (NASA) in 1958. In 1962, as NASA prepared orbital mission, Astronaut John Glenn, requested Katherine to check the computer’s flight calculations for accuracy during the preflight checklist. He was so confident in her calculations ability that only if she said the calculations were right, then he would be ready to go. With her help the flight was a success.
One of Katherine’s greatest of many contributions to space exploration was the calculations that helped synth Project Apollo’s Lunar Module with the lunar-orbiting Command and Service Module. She worked on the Space Shuttle, Landsat, later know as Earth Resources Satellite and she also was the author or coauthor on 26 research reports. She retired from NASA in 1986. In 2015 at age 97, Katherine Johnson, was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor by President Barack Obama.
