Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations supported NASA’s early crewed spaceflights. Her work included checking orbital trajectories and computing flight paths.

Project Mercury: NASA’s first human spaceflight program, which sent astronauts into orbit and on suborbital flights from 1958 to 1963. Johnson calculated trajectories for Mercury missions, including John Glenn’s orbital flight.
Orbital mechanics: The study of the motion of bodies under gravity, especially spacecraft and natural satellites. It supplied the physical framework for the orbital trajectories Johnson calculated.
Dorothy Vaughan: An American mathematician and computing supervisor who led the West Area Computers at NACA and NASA. Vaughan supervised Johnson and helped her advance within the organization.
West Area Computers: A group of Black women mathematicians who performed calculations at NACA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. Johnson began her NASA career in this segregated computing group.
John Glenn: American astronaut and politician who became the first American to orbit Earth in 1962. Glenn asked Johnson to verify the electronic computer’s orbital calculations before his flight.
Celestial mechanics: The mathematical study of the motion of celestial bodies under gravity. Johnson’s orbital calculations applied this older mathematical discipline to spacecraft.
Mary Jackson: An American mathematician and aerospace engineer who became NASA’s first Black female engineer. Jackson worked alongside Johnson in the segregated West Area computing group.
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics: The United States federal agency that conducted aeronautical research from 1915 until NASA replaced it in 1958. Johnson joined the NACA organization before it became part of NASA.
Friendship 7: The Mercury-Atlas 6 spacecraft that carried John Glenn on his 1962 orbital mission. Johnson helped calculate the trajectory for this flight, which made her work visible to the public.
Numerical analysis: The study of algorithms for obtaining approximate solutions to mathematical problems. Computing usable flight paths required turning equations of motion into numerical results.

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