Katherine Johnson: The woman the astronauts trusted

As a child, Katherine Johnson liked to count. Her path led her to NASA, where she worked as a mathematician on the big missions. Johnson is a legend today. An obituary.

• Katherine Johnson calculated trajectories for important missions at NASA
• The missions of Alan Shepard and John Glenn and also Apollo 11 trusted in Katherine Johnson
• Up until the film "Hidden Figures" , the mathematician's work was largely unknown

Washington - She was one of the long-unknown women who was instrumental in major NASA missions: Katherine Johnson . Now the woman, who was considered a math genius , died at the age of 101.

The fact that numerous women were involved in NASA's space program was largely unknown for a long time. Only the book “Hidden Figures” and the Hollywood film of the same name brought the story of Katherine Johnson - a woman in the male-dominated space industry and a black woman in a deeply racist society - to the public.

Katherine Johnson: NASA legend had a soft spot for numbers as a child

Katherine Johnson at work for NASA.

© Nasa

Katherine Johnson liked to count as a child, according to the website of the US space agency Nasa. "I counted everything. I counted the steps to the street, the steps to the church, the number of dishes that I washed ... I counted everything that could be counted, ”Johnson is quoted as saying. The Nasa legend was born in 1918. Her love for numbers showed up very early - and so did her life: Johnson studied mathematics and became a teacher - until she came to Nasa in the 1950s.

It was a turbulent time: The "Sputnik" shock * was in the bones of the United States, women - especially mothers with children - were rarely found in professional life and, moreover, society was extremely racist at that time.

"Human computers" like Katherine Johnson calculated trajectories at Nasa

Katherine Johnson was at the Nasa part of the so-called "human computer": *, who lined the complicated calculations of trajectories or fuel quantities in the days before computers mainly women. At Nasa, for example, Johnson calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard's "Friendship 7" mission, which was the first American to launch him.

When John Glenn flew in 1962, the first computers were already in use by NASA - but the astronaut wasn't comfortable risking his life after only one computer had calculated the data - computers were then prone to errors and had dropouts. So Glenn asked NASA for Katherine Johnson to do the math. "If she says they're good, I'm ready to fly," quotes Nasa Johnson on her website, which remembered John Glenn's testimony. Glenn was the first American to circle Earth in 1962 - after Johnson gave it OK.

Katherine Johnson at NASA: Apollo 11, Space Shuttle, Landsat

Katherine Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award, from former President Barack Obama.

© picture alliance / dpa / Michael Reynolds

According to Johnson, one of her greatest achievements in space travel was her calculations, which synchronized the lunar modules of the Apollo missions with the command capsules in the orbit of the moon. Johnson was also involved in calculating the flight path for Apollo 11 - the first moon landing *. And the improvised return flight of the almost fatal Apollo 13 mission was calculated by Johnson. Johnson has also worked on the Space Shuttle and the Landsat satellite , and has written numerous papers on space travel . In 1986 Katherine Johnson retired, but caused a sensation again in 2015 - at the age of 97: the then U.S. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award for civilians in the United States.

Movie about Katherine Johnson: "Hidden Figures"

In 2016, the film “Hidden Figures” * was released, in which Johnson was played by Taraji P. Henson. At the Academy Awards in February 2017, the film won none of the coveted trophies despite three nominations, but Katherine Johnson got something much more valuable there: standing ovations and public recognition.

Katherine Johnson was a badass mathematician to the very end, waiting until age 101 so she would die in her prime

Katherine Johnson died on February 24, 2020 at the age of 101. "She was an American heroine and her legacy as a pioneer will never be forgotten," said NASA chief Jim Bridenstine in a statement from NASA. Without Johnson, "milestones" in US space travel would not have been possible. It also made a significant contribution to the fact that women and blacks now have more doors open, continued Bridenstine.

By Tanja Banner

* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital central editorial office.

Rubric list image: © Nasa