Katherine Johnson calculated the flight paths that carried America’s first astronauts into space and home again.
John Glenn asked that she personally check the computer’s numbers before his 1962 orbital flight. Her work also supported Apollo 11. Her story was told in Hidden Figures.
Key Facts
- Lived: 1918 to 2020
- Calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard’s 1961 flight
- Verified the calculations for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission
- Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015
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