Before computers were invented, mathematical equations and expressions were calculated by people, known as human computers. Katherine Johnson was a human computer employed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, who completed the calculations for many space missions. (Ott)
Katherine Johnson was born on August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. (Shetterly) From a young age, Johnson was always eager to learn and could not wait to start school. (Wild) She displayed an aptitude with numbers and she was overall a gifted student. Her special talent allowed her to advance quickly in her education. By age ten, she had completed all the education available for African Americans during this time period in her small town. This obstacle did not deter her from pursuing her education. In 1928, her family moved to Institute, West Virginia where she was able to attend high school. (Ott)
At age fifteen Johnson graduated high school and enrolled at West Virginia State College. Originally, she was hesitating to choose her major because she unsure if she prefered Mathematics, English, or French. However, Dr. William W. Schiefflin Claytor saw her incredible ability to work and calculate numbers. He played a major role in guiding Johnson into the field of research mathematics. Unlike some professors, he did all that he could, even create new classes specifically for her, to prepare her for the working field. With help from Dr. Claytor and many other professors, Johnson graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degrees in mathematics and French at the age of eighteen.
After graduating, with no other option Johnson became a teacher at a school for African American children. (Wild) However this only lasted for two years. Johnson stopped teaching after she was handpicked to be one of three to desegregate West Virginia’s graduate schools. Johnson decided to leave the school before finishing her degree for two major reasons; She wanted to start a family with her husband (Shetterly), James Francis Goble, and she found the graduate school to not be as accepting as the college. (Ott). She later returned to teaching. (Shetterly)
Teaching was not Johnson’s dream job, however there was not any other options, until 1952 (Wild) when she became informed about open positions at Langley Laboratory. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,NACA, was looking for women to serve as “Human Computers”, people who completed calculations for the research projects, in their all African American West Area. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that Johnson could not let slip away. She and her husband decided to take the risk to move their family to Newport News. The risk paid off when she began to work at NACA in the summer of 1953. (Shetterly)
Johnson was different compared to the other women in the West Area. Her calculations were completed skillfully and quickly. Also she did not just do what she was told; She asked questions and completed her own calculations. This made her stand out (Ott) and within two weeks she was transported to a temporary position working in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division. Here she examined and researched data from flight test and plane crashes. Within the four years she was in this division, (Shetterly) she proved her skill, earning herself more tasks, the ability to participate in meetings, (Ott), and making the position permanent.
A very unfortunate tragedy struck the family when Johnson’s husband died of cancer in 1956 as she was finishing her research. (Shetterly) This left her a single mother of her three young daughters. However she was able to cope with the loss and she remarried in 1959 to James A. Johnson. (Ott)
Many people’s lives, including Johnson’s, was changed forever when the Sputnik satellite was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. The Space Task Group was created to compete with the Soviet Union’s space exploration missions. This group, crucial to the research of space flight, included engineers and mathematicians from the Flight Research Division, which was where Johnson was working, and Pilotless Aircraft Research Division. During late 1958 NACA was transformed into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, officially making space exploration a priority.
The creation of NASA and the Space Task Group gave Johnson more opportunities and responsibilities. In 1960, she became credited as the first women to write a research report in the Flight Research Division when she co-wrote Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position. (Shetterly) Also the following year, she took control of calculating the trajectory of Alan Shepard’s (Ott) Freedom 7 mission, the first American space mission piloted by a human.(Shetterly) Unlike the other researchers, Johnson discovered that when given where and when the capsule will land you could work backwards to find when and where it should take off.
With Alan Shepard’s mission being a success NASA wanted to go further with John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission, the first American mission to orbit Earth. However orbiting Earth requires much more complex equations. (Ott) During this time NASA was integrating IBM computers into their research laboratories. Instead of having human’s solve the equations the numbers would be run through the computers, which would have total control over the whole mission. With computers being as new as they were Glenn was skeptical about the accuracy of them. Glenn, during the preflight checklist, called Johnson directly to check the calculations by hand. Without her checking Glenn said he would not approve launching. The mission was a success and would be what Johnson is most known for. (Shetterly)
Within thirty-three years of working for NASA, Johnson has worked on many calculations for many research and space missions. She has completed calculations for Apollo 11, the first mission to the moon, she helped Apollo 13 return to Earth after it experienced a failure in space, and worked on many other missions. (Ott) Besides completing calculations, Johnson also wrote and co-wrote twenty-six research reports. Sadly in 1986, Johnson retired, (Shetterly) however she always stayed informed about space exploration. (Wild)
Johnson’s hard work did not go unnoticed. In 1967 her team received the NASA Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations team award. Also she was awarded the National Technical Association’s Mathematician of the Year in 1997. Many other awards and medals were presented to Johnson, (Ott) however one is very significant. She received the highest award given to civilians on Tuesday, November 24, 2015 when President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (Smith)
Even though she received many medals and awards, not many people knew about her or her dedication to space exploration, until now. Margot Lee Shetterly published a book, Hidden Figures, in September 2016 revealing Katherine Johnson’s, Dorothy Vaughan’s, and Mary Jackson’s story about their hard work and dedication to their jobs. Also a movie of the same title was released in late 2016, with Taraji P. Henson starring as Katherine Johnson. (Ott)
Katherine Johnson teaches the world so many lessons from her story. She shows us that you should always follow your dream even if people don’t think you are good enough and to love to learn starting a young age. Johnson proved to many that age, gender, and race do not decide one’s knowledge and intelligence.