Katherine Johnson

Johnson showed exceptional mathematical ability as a child. Because her hometown did not offer public schooling for Black children beyond eighth grade, her family moved during the school year so the children could continue their education.

Calculate and verify trajectories in an era when human spaceflight was new, computers were unfamiliar, and small errors could become life-threatening.

Johnson calculated flight paths for early NASA missions and personally checked the computer-generated orbital calculations for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 flight.

Her work helped NASA build confidence in orbital navigation and human spaceflight mathematics.

The orbital paths shown on TransitSatellite are descendants of the same trajectory mathematics Johnson helped make operational.