Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician and human computer who lived from 1918 to 2020 and whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and later United States crewed spaceflights. During a 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, she calculated trajectories, launch windows and emergency return paths for Project Mercury flights, including those of Alan Shepard and John Glenn, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon. She helped pioneer the use of computers for tasks that had previously required human calculators, and her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2019, and she was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.