One of NASA's "human computers," Johnson says she grew up counting everything. That love for
counting quickly turned into serious math skills as Johnson breezed her way through math classes.
At just 18 she graduated with degrees in mathematics and French from West Virginia State College (now University).
In 1952, Johnson started working for the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) and impressed her
supervisors with both her talent and her inquisitiveness. Then, in 1958, NACA was folded into NASA, and Johnson was
part of the team charged with calculating the way to send a human to space and back. Her work was instrumental in sending
the first American, Alan Shepard, into space in 1961. NASA also counted on her calculations to send John Glenn into orbit in
1962 and Apollo 11 to the moon in 1969.
In 2015, President Barack Obama presented her with the National Medal of
Freedom. In 2016, NASA opened the $30 million Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility. And then, of course, there
was Hidden Figures, the blockbuster 2016 film based partly on Johnson's life.
Learn more about Katherine Johnson…