In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Katherine was called upon to do the work that she would become most known for. She worked on and published several papers with engineers that formed the core of the Space Task Group, the NACA’s (later becoming NASA in 1958) first official foray into space travel. The 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik changed history-and her life. Katherine and her husband moved to Virginia to pursue the opportunity, where Katherine spent the next four years analyzing data from flight tests until her husband died of cancer in December 1956. It wasn’t until 1952 that she heard about open positions at the all-black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA’s) Langley laboratory, headed by fellow West Virginian Dorothy Vaughan. At the end of the first session, however, she decided to leave school to start a family with her first husband, James Goble. Katherine was one of the three black students handpicked to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools. She left her teaching job and enrolled in the graduate math program in 1939. At 18, she enrolled in the historically black West Virginia State College, where she graduated with highest honors in 1937 and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia. Her brilliance with numbers shone early on and vaulted her ahead several grades in school, and by 13, she was attending high school. You may have heard about their story from the 2016 film Hidden Figures. These African American women computers played a vital role in 1962, when they helped send the first American astronaut into orbit, John Glenn. This week we are shining light on Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, three women who played a vital role in advancing NASA’s missions. She retired from NASA in 1986.This year for Women’s History Month, we are highlighting different women each week who, although you may have not heard of previously, have contributed greatly to society. Johnson also verified the mathematics behind John Glenn’s orbit around the Earth in 1962 and calculated the flight trajectory for Apollo 11’s flight to the moon in 1969. Upon leaving The Flight Mechanics Branch, Johnson went on to join the Spacecraft Controls Branch where she calculated the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space in 1959. NACA became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. Her knowledge made her invaluable to her superiors and her assertiveness won her a spot in previously all-male meetings. Johnson was assigned to the all-male flight research division. In 1953, she joined Langley Research Center (LaRC) as a research mathematician for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). However, family issues kept her from completing the required courses. Johnson was one of the first African Americans to enroll in the mathematics program. In 1940, she attended West Virginia University to obtain a graduate degree. degree in French and mathematics in 1932 from West Virginia State University (formerly West Virginia State College). She attended West Virginia State High School and graduated from high school at age fourteen. Her father moved Johnson’s family to Institute, West Virginia, which was 125 miles away from the family home so that Johnson and her siblings could attend school. From a young age, Johnson enjoyed mathematics and could easily solve mathematical equations. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a farmer and janitor. Katherine Johnson was born on Augin White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia to Joylette and Joshua Coleman.
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