Most of us have heard of Alan Shepard. The first U.S Astronaut to go to space. But have you ever thought about the brains behind this mission? Well it was a African-American woman called Katherine Johnson, also known as “The Human Computer. Katherine Johnson born in 1918 in White Sulfur Springs. Katherine Johnson was smart from her childhood. At the bright age of 14 she passed highschool and at 18 graduated college. Everyone knew that she was really smart, however Katherine herself didn’t know that. After college she became a teacher teaching children math. In 1953 NASA was hiring black mathematicians and they just introduced this to even girls. Being the first woman in a room of all white men. She proved that she was smarter than all of them. People called her a Human Computer because of how smart she was. In 1961 she helped with the “Freedom 7 Mission,” calculating the trajectories and flight paths of the space shuttle. Basically everything was in her hands. In 1969 she also calculated the trajectories and flight paths for the Apollo 11 mission. I think now we know why people called her a human calculator. On February 24th Katherine Johnson died at a whopping age of 102. A great woman who will never be forgotten
Fun Facts:
- Worked at Nasa for 33 years!
- Got a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 by Obama
- She helped with plans to go to Mars!
- She got her doctorate degree 75 years after dropping out of graduate school!