KATHERINE JOHNSON

The Human Computer
Trailblazinf NASA mathmatician whose calculatiosn made spaceflight and the moon landing possible

Before algorithms ran our lives, Katherine Johnson ran the numbers that launched humans into space. A mathematician at NASA during the Space Race, she calculated the trajectories for John Glenn’s orbital flight and the Apollo 11 moon landing by hand. Glenn famously refused to fly unless Johnson verified the computer’s output.

In a world that underestimated both her race and her gender, she persisted. Johnson’s story is one of the quiet genius and unstoppable precision-reminding us that inclusion in tech isn’t justice, its mission critical.

Birth:
1918 – 2020

Career Path:
Degree in Mathematics & French, West Virginia State (1937)

Joined NASA’s predecessor in 1953

Calculated trajectories for Mercury & Apollo missions

Honoured with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2015)

Subject of Hidden Figures (2016)