Katherine Johnson

The Full Profile

Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician, used orbital calculations to support landmark U.S. space missions and became an enduring example of Black women’s excellence in technical fields. Katherine Johnson was a mathematician whose work at NACA and NASA included trajectory analysis for crewed spaceflight. Her calculations contributed to missions involving Alan Shepard, John Glenn, and Apollo-era planning. Her career later became widely known as an example of excellence despite racial and gender barriers in technical institutions. John Glenn refused to fly his 1962 orbital mission until she personally verified the computer's numbers; her career ran from Alan Shepard's first flight to Apollo 13's rescue calculations, and she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.