'Hidden Figures' inspiration Katherine Johnson dies at 101
NASA mathematician helped guide space missions
Mathematician Katherine Johnson, who was employed by NASA as a human “computer” during the height of the 1960s space race and profiled in the film Hidden Figures, died February 24 at age 101.
The story of Johnson and her colleagues confronting racial segregation and gender inequality at the space agency’s Langley, Virginia, research facility was the basis for the film.
Handwritten mathematical calculations performed by Johnson and her colleagues were critical to the success of early U.S. manned space missions. Every phase of spaceflight, including optimum booster separation, establishing the desired orbit, safe re-entry, and astronaut recovery depended on the accuracy of these calculations.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine complimented the “legend” who worked for the agency from 1953 to 1986. He released a statement saying that the space agency was “deeply saddened by the loss of a leader from our pioneering days.” He remembered Johnson for her “huge strides that also opened doors for women and people of color in the universal human quest to explore space.”
Bridenstine recalled that Johnson’s “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.” In 2017 the space agency dedicated a computational research facility in her name.
In 2017, President Donald Trump honored Johnson and other African Americans with a Black History Month proclamation that stated, “Through toil and struggle and with courageous actions that have broken barriers, they have made America a better place to live and work for everybody.”
In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson a Presidential Medal of Freedom, calling her “a pioneer in American space history” whose computations “influenced every major space program from Mercury through the Shuttle program” including the “verification of the first flight calculation made by an electronic computer” for John Glenn’s Earth orbit on February 2, 1962, and depicted in the movie.
The New York Times wrote that Johnson was fond of saying her tenure at the Virginia space flight facility was “a time when computers wore skirts.”
The newspaper reported that Johnson “entered high school at 10 and graduated at 14. The next year she entered West Virginia State. By her junior year, she had taken all the math courses the college had to offer.” She graduated summa cum laude in 1937 with a double major in mathematics and French. In 1940, Johnson was chosen as “one of three black graduate students to integrate West Virginia University, the all-white institution in Morgantown.”
In 1990 Johnson recalled to The Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia, that secrecy surrounded her group’s work. “We were the pioneers of the space era. You had to read Aviation Week to find out what you’d done.”
Upon her death, the Virginia newspaper reported February 24 that Johnson took satisfaction from knowing “a generation of young women might be inspired by her story to pursue educations and careers in scientific and technological fields. She remained humble, somewhat amused at the fuss being made over her.”
During a 2016 interview she told the newspaper that she loved her time with NASA. “Every day, I got to do what I love. The harder it was, the better I liked it.”
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