Johnson’s birthplace, White Sulphur Springs, is shown in the image above, acquired by the Landsat 8 satellite in 2019. “If she says they’re good, I am ready to go,” said Glenn. He asked Johnson to check the equations for his orbit against the computer output. In a pivotal scene in the movie, John Glenn hesitated over trusting his fate in space to a network of new IBM computers. Her story came to light in 2016 through the book and film Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. Glenn became a household name in the United States, but it wasn’t until recently that Katherine Johnson’s name became well-known. Her work was also instrumental in John Glenn’s successful orbit around Earth in 1962. In 1961, Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission, America’s first human spaceflight. She worked in the West Area Computing section at Langley Research Center on a team of Black women headed by fellow West Virginian Dorothy Vaughan. In 1953, in a time of racial segregation, she started a job as a human “computer” with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to NASA. Katherine Johnson contributed her mathematical expertise to the first human space travel missions in the United States. The celebration commemorates the birthday of the ground-breaking NASA mathematician who was born on August 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs. Hopefully it becomes a place as influential as Johnson herself.Since 2017, August 26 has been known as Katherine Johnson Day in West Virginia.
The NASA center is a $23-million, 37,000 facility in Hampton, Virginia. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was even attended by the group Black Girls Code. Read More: ‘Hidden Figures’ Inspired the US State Department to Create a STEM Exchange Program for Women Johnson’s character and accomplishments than this building that will bear her name.” “I can’t imagine a better tribute to Mrs. “We’re here to honor the legacy of one of the most admired and inspirational people ever associated with NASA,” David Bowles, director of the center, said in a press release. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 for her work at NASA. Johnson helped launch astronaut John Glenn into space. Read More: Why Girls and Women in STEM Need Role Modelsīut NASA isn’t so crazy to have named the center after the iconic scientist “Hidden Figures” was a global box office success that showed how audiences everywhere are hungry for oft-overlooked stories about women of color who have made enormous contributions to the world - especially to the sciences. “You want my honest answer? I think they’re crazy,” she said, according to The Root.
When asked what she thought about the decision, she had a colorful answer. Johnson, who is 99 years old, was on hand at the ribbon-cutting for the new NASA Research Center to see the new sign welcoming people to the building under her name.
NASA’s new state-of-the-art research facility has been named for Katherine Johnson, the engineer who helped break racial and gender barriers inside NASA in the 1960s and whose story was immortalized in “Hidden Figures” last year. NASA is finally giving one of its most important living legends her due.
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