In 1961, Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 Mission, the first to carry an American into space. Many legends blaze trails loudly with a roar, but others, like Katherine Johnson, lead us in their own direction with a gentle whisper.
Katherine johnson nasa works how to#
“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 trajectories,” Johnson told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 2012. But her work at NASA's Langley Research Center eventually shifted to Project Mercury, the nation's first human space program. In her later NASA career, Johnson worked on the Space Shuttle program and the Earth Resources Satellite and encouraged students to pursue careers in science. In 1989, she married Dennis Hopper, with whom she had a son, Henry. Johnson focused on airplanes and other research at first. Actress, former ballet dancer and choreographer Katherine LaNasa was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and originally trained as a ballet dancer, but had attended the North Carolina School of Arts, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as well as the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York. When NACA became NASA in 1958, the agency began to eliminate segregated facilities. In 1962, she verified computer calculations that plotted John Glenn's earth orbits.Īt age 97, Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. During her career, she oversaw both Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson. Yet unlike the white male astronauts she helped launch into space, no one knew of the groundbreaking work Johnson and dozens of other Black women did for NASA and space exploration. During her tenure at NASA, Johnson received many prestigious awards. In 1961, Johnson worked on the first mission to carry an American into space. Johnson worked at the agency until 1986, when she retired after 33 years of service. Their work was the focus of the Oscar-nominated 2016 film. Until 1958, Johnson and other black women worked in a racially segregated computing unit at what is now called Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Johnson was one of the so-called “computers” who calculated rocket trajectories and earth orbits by hand during NASA's early years. In a Monday morning tweet, the space agency said it celebrates her 101 years of life and her legacy of excellence and breaking down racial and social barriers.
NASA says Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who worked on NASA's early space missions and was portrayed in the film “Hidden Figures,” about pioneering black female aerospace workers, has died.
0 kommentar(er)
