![]() She also worked on the Space Shuttle programme before retiring in 1986. Her calculations helped the lunar lander rendezvous with the orbiting command service module. Ms Johnson considered her work on the Apollo programme to be her greatest contribution to space exploration. Saturn V: Inside the rocket that launched Apollo 11 to the Moon.Apollo 11 Space Mission: 60 seconds from disaster.How 22kg of lunar rocks delivered by Apollo 11 changed our understanding of how the Moon formed.50 beautiful photos of the Moon landing missions from the Project Apollo Archives. ![]() Everything you ever wanted to know about the Apollo programme.Read more about the Apollo space programme: “We get to mourn her and also commemorate the work that she did that she’s most known for at the same time,” Shetterly said. Shetterly noted that Ms Johnson died during Black History Month and a few days after the anniversary of Glenn’s orbits of the Earth on 20 February 1962, for which she played an important role. “She gave us a new way to look at black history, women’s history and American history.” “The wonderful gift that Katherine Johnson gave us is that her story shined a light on the stories of so many other people,” Shetterly said. I'm as good as anybody, but no better Katherine Johnson “Get the girl to check the numbers,” a computer-sceptical Glenn had insisted in the days before the launch. The next year, she manually verified the calculations of a nascent NASA computer, an IBM 7090, which plotted John Glenn’s orbits around the planet. In 1961, Ms Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 Mission, the first to carry an American into space. Wally Funk: a story of sexism in the race for space.10 amazing women in science history you really should know about.Ada Lovelace: a mathematician, a computer scientist and a visionary.Ladies who launch: the women behind the Apollo Program.Read more about women in science history: “You tell me when and where you want it to come down, and I will tell you where and when and how to launch it.” “Our office computed all the (rocket) trajectories,” she told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 2012. But her work at NASA's Langley Research Centre eventually shifted to Project Mercury, the nation’s first human space programme. She focused on planes and other research at first. ![]() "Glenn's flight was a success, and marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space," NASA says.īut "when asked to name her greatest contribution to space exploration, Katherine Johnson talks about the calculations that helped synch Project Apollo's Lunar Lander with the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module," according to NASA.Katherine Johnson, in 1955 © NASA/Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images "If she says they're good,'" Johnson remembered Glenn saying, "then I'm ready to go." So Glenn asked engineers to "get the girl," referring to Johnson, to run the computer equations by hand. The 1962 flight required the construction of a "worldwide communications network" linking tracking stations around the world to computers in Washington, D.C., Cape Canaveral, and Bermuda.īut astronauts weren't keen on "putting their lives in the care of the electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts," according to NASA. She was best-known though for work that greatly contributed to the first American orbital spaceflight, piloted by John Glenn. ![]() 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. In her role there, she did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's 1961 mission Freedom 7, which was America's first human spaceflight, according to NASA. Johnson began working at NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' in 1953 at the Langley laboratory in Virginia. More from NBC News: 2nd person struck and killed by Mardi Gras parade float in New Orleans Probe into abuse at America's oldest deaf school finds 'appalling truths' Daredevil 'Mad' Mike Hughes dies in homemade rocket launch The film also stars Octavia Spencer as mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as engineer Mary Jackson. Henson in the Oscar nominated 2016 film "Hidden Figures" about trailblazing black women whose work at NASA was integral during the Space Race. ![]()
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