In Memoriam

Remembering Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician And Trailblazer

Katherine Johnson, one of the barrier-breaking NASA mathematicians depicted in “Hidden Figures” movie, died Monday, a representative of NASA said.

Published

6 years ago

February 24, 2020

UVM Staff

Katherine Johnson (Photo Credit: NASA | Public Domain | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katherine_Johnson_at_NASA,_in_1966.jpg)

Katherine Johnson, one of the trailblazing NASA mathematicians depicted in “Hidden Figures” movie, died Monday, a representative of NASA said.

She was 101.

Statement on Katherine Johnson’s death

“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.

Trailblazer in S.T.E.M.

Johnson was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 Oscar-nominated film about trailblazing black women whose work at NASA was intrinsic during the space era.

The film also stars Octavia Spencer as the mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as the engineer Mary Jackson.

A graduate of West Virginia State College, Johnson began working at NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1953 at the Langley Laboratory in Virginia.

Mathematician. Leader. Heroine.

Katherine Johnson not only helped calculate the trajectories that took our Apollo astronauts to the Moon — she was champion for women and minorities in the space program and the world as a whole. We honor her memory today. https://t.co/kH9qEEvdMY pic.twitter.com/A341ukDFTl

— Women@NASA (@WomenNASA) February 24, 2020

Katherine Johnson’s curiosity and brilliance with numbers led her to a distinguished career @NASA that not only advanced space exploration, but broke through racial barriers to pave the way for future generations. Today, we honor her enduring impact. https://t.co/eRsgMOtDF1 pic.twitter.com/KxORH2ODAS

— NASA People (@NASApeople) February 24, 2020

Katherine Johnson at NASA

Johnson 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.