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By: Kirsten Marcelin
Period 6 American History
22 February 2021
Katherine Coleman, later Katherine Johnson, was born on August 26, 1918. She was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where she lived for the beginning of her life. She was the youngest of four siblings, and her parents were Joshua and Joylette Coleman. Her father, Joshua Coleman, was a handyman, and her mother, Joylette Coleman, was a teacher.
Image from: pintrest.com
By 1932, Katherine was in her last year of high school at West Virginia State College. She was fourteen years old at the time, and already had a love for math, which would carry on for the rest of her life. In 1937, when Katherine was eighteen years old, she graduated from college at West Virginia State College, and she did so with highest honors. After she graduated, she took a job as a teacher at a black public school.
Part of West Virginia State College.
Photo From: http://library.wvstateu.edu/archives/BuildingsArt-Pgs/Ferrell-Hall.html
In 1939, Katherine was chosen for something that was important all across America. She, along with two black men, were chosen to integrate West Virginia University. Katherine decided to enroll in a graduate math program, but left after her first session because she wanted to start a family with James Goble, her first husband. Though this did not last a long time, the importance of this event in Katherine's life is that she, specifically. was chosen, out of many others who could have been offered the third spot.
West Virginia University Logo
Photo From: commons.wikimedia.com
When Katherine was 34 years old, she was told by a family member about open positions in the all-black West Area Computing section at NACA. NACA stood for National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. It would later become NASA, which stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The open positions were for "computers," who were female mathematicians that used raw data and turned it into more useful information. Katherine applied for one of these positions, but did not get hired because all of the available positions were already filled. Katherine applied again the next year, though, and that time she was hired. For that reason, Katherine and James Goble moved to Newport News and Katherine began working at NACA Langley in the summer of 1953.
Photo From: pintrest.com
After just two weeks of working at NACA Langley, Dorothy Vaughan, who was the head of the laboratory where Katherine was working, assigned her to a different position temporarily. It was in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division. The position eventually became permanent, and Katherine spent the next 4 years working on analyzing data from flight tests and investigating a plane crash that was caused by wake turbulence. Katherine was someone who asked a lot of different questions within her job. She also attended many different meetings at NACA that were previously only attended by men.
Photo From: blogspot.com
After the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet satellite, Katherine provided some of the math that would be used in the 1958 Notes on Space Technology Document. This was a collection of 1958 lectures that were given by a few different engineers who were in the Flight Research Division as well as the Pilot-less Aircraft Research Division, which is also known as PARD. Some of the engineers in those groups formed the main part of the Space Task Group, who were the beginnings of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics's first try at space travel. Katherine was a part of this group since she "came along with the program," (Loff). That would be because this was also at the time when NACA became NASA, according to nasa.gov.
Photos From: wikipedia.com
NACA Logo
Katherine Johnson did more work for NASA as time went on, which led to her becoming more recognized and played a role in what led her to doing the work that she is most known for. She, along with an engineer named Ted Skopinski, co-authored, "Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing A Satellite Over A Selected Earth Position," which was a report that laid out the equations that described an orbital spaceflight in which the landing position of a spacecraft is specified. This fact is notable because it was the first time that a woman that was in the Flight Research Division had received credit for being the author of a research report within NASA. Along with this report, Katherine also did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's mission on May 5, 1961, which was Freedom 7.
Photo of the Launch of Freedom 7
Photo From: commons.wikimedia.org
In 1962, Katherine did the work that she ended up being the most known for. NASA was preparing for John Glenn's orbital mission. The calculations for this mission were very complex, and required the construction of a worldwide communications network. There were tracking stations linked around the world to IBM computers in Washington, Cape Canaveral, Florida, as well as Bermuda. These computers had been programmed with orbital equations that would control the trajectory of the Friendship 7 capsule during the entire mission. But, the astronauts weren't too convinced and a bit wary of putting their lives in the hands of electronics, since something could always go wrong. John Glenn asked engineers to have Katherine check over the equations, by hand, on a desktop mechanical calculating machine. If Katherine confirmed that the numbers were good, then the mission was good to go. The flight was a success, and part of that success was thanks to Katherine and her math.
Photo From: commons.wikimedia.org
Friendship 7 Launch
During her later years at NASA, Katherine Johnson continued to do important work. For example, she worked on the trajectory for the Apollo 11 mission, which landed on the moon in 1969 and is an important part of US history. In 1970, Katherine worked on the Apollo 13 mission as well. After it was aborted, her calculations on backup procedures, as well as her navigation charts, were able to ensure the crew's safe return to Earth.
Example of Simple Trajectory for the Apollo 11 mission. This is not what Katherine
worked on, but a
simple example of
what trajectory may
look like.
Photo From: space.stackexchange.com
In 1986, Katherine Johnson retired from NASA Langley. Katherine worked at NASA for 33 years and made several different notable accomplishments. Katherine once said that, "I loved going to work every single day." This says a lot about her character, and about her as a person, considering the circumstances that she faced. But, she was able to make groundbreaking differences during her time there, even though she did not necessarily have a direct path laid out for her.
She paved it.
Photo from: blogspot.com
In 2015, when she was 97 years old, Katherine was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Barack Obama. The medal is America's highest civilian honor. Katherine's story was also told in the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly in 2016, and the book was adapted into a movie, which came out in 2017.
Photos From: christianbook.com, amazon.com, and bossy.it
On February 24, 2020, Katherine Johnson passed away. She was 101 years old and lived a long and successful life. She left behind a great legacy and will be remembered for all of the work she did for NASA, as well as her love of math.
Image from: pintrest.com
Photo from: blogspot.com
Loff, Sarah. “Katherine Johnson Biography.” NASA, NASA, 22 Nov. 2016, www.nasa.gov/content/katherine-johnson-biography.
Shetterly, Margot Lee. Hidden Figures-Young Reader's Addition: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space. Scholastic Inc., 2017.
“Who Was Katherine Johnson? Everything You Need to Know.” The Famous People, www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/katherine-johnson-22835.php#:~:text=Katherine%20Johnson%20was%20born%20on%20August%2026,%201918,mathematical%20genius%20was%20evident%20from%20an%20early%20age.
Wild, Flint. “Who Was Katherine Johnson?” NASA, NASA, 30 Dec. 2016, www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/who-was-katherine-johnson-k4.