Bolden: She Was One Of The Greatest Minds Ever To Grace Our Agency

Former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson was among 17 people honored with the Medal of Freedom in a ceremony held at the White House in Washington, D.C. Tuesday.

According to her NASA biography, Johnson was born in 1918 in the little town of White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson was a research mathematician, who by her own admission, was simply fascinated by numbers. Fascinated by numbers and smart to boot, for by the time she was 10 years old, she was a high school freshman--a truly amazing feat in an era when school for African-Americans normally stopped at eighth grade for those could indulge in that luxury.

In 1953, after years as a teacher and later as a stay-at-home mom, she began working for NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. The NACA had taken the unusual step of hiring women for the tedious and precise work of measuring and calculating the results of wind tunnel tests in 1935.  In a time before the electronic computers we know today, these women had the job title of “computer.”  During World War II, the NACA expanded this effort to include African-American women.  The NACA was so pleased with the results that, unlike many organizations, they kept the women computers at work after the war.  By 1953 the growing demands of early space research meant there were openings for African-American computers at Langley Research Center’s Guidance and Navigation Department – and Katherine Johnson found the perfect place to put her extraordinary mathematical skills to work.

As a computer, she calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Even after NASA began using electronic computers, John Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations made by the new electronic computers before his flight aboard Friendship 7 – the mission on which he became the first American to orbit the Earth. She continued to work at NASA until 1986 combining her math talent with electronic computer skills. Her calculations proved as critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program, as they did to those first steps on the country's journey into space.

"Katherine Johnson once remarked that even though she grew up in the height of segregation, she didn't think much about it because 'I didn't have time for that… don't have a feeling of inferiority. Never had. I'm as good as anybody, but no better.'," said NASA administrator Charles Bolen in a statement.

"The truth in fact, is that Katherine is indeed better. She's one of the greatest minds ever to grace our agency or our country, and because of the trail she blazed, young Americans like my granddaughters can pursue their own dreams without a feeling of inferiority.

"Katherine's legacy is a big part of the reason that my fellow astronauts and I were able to get to space; it's also a big part of the reason that today there is space for women and African-Americans in the leadership of our nation, including the White House.

"The entire NASA family is both proud of and grateful to Katherine Johnson, a true American pioneer who helped our space program advance to new heights, while advancing humanity's march of progress ever forward."

The following is a statement from NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman:

"The reach of Katherine Johnson's leadership and impact extends from classrooms across America all the way to the moon. Katherine once remarked that while many of her colleagues refrained from asking questions or taking tasks further than merely 'what they were told to do,' she chose instead to ask questions because she 'wanted to know why.'

"For Katherine, finding the 'why' meant enrolling in high school at the age of 10; calculating the trajectory of Alan Shepard's trip to space and the Apollo 11's mission to the moon; and providing the foundation that will someday allow NASA to send our astronauts to Mars. She literally wrote the textbook on rocket science.

"We are all so fortunate that Katherine insisted on asking questions, and insisted on relentlessly pursuing the answers. We are fortunate that when faced with the adversity of racial and gender barriers, she found the courage to say 'tell them I'm coming.' We are also fortunate that Katherine has chosen to take a leading role in encouraging young people to pursue education in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math.

"Katherine was born on National Equality Day. Few Americans have embodied the true spirit of equity as profoundly or impacted the cause of human exploration so extensively. At NASA, we are proud to stand on Katherine Johnson's shoulders."

(Images provided with NASA biography)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-loved-to-count