Well, here we are, nearly right up to date with Black Science History.

Dr Katherine G Johnson is still alive, but retired now. She is considered one of the pioneers of the American space movement.

Her job was based on mathematics but she is also credited with being a physicist and using astronomy with mathematics to develop space navigation systems.



Galileo said “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe”

And Katherine used her gift with the language of maths to carve her brilliant career.

She was born in West Virginia in 1918. Katherine’s parents were dead keen that she should receive the best education possible, even going so far as to travel across the state to make sure Katherine and her siblings didn’t miss out because of the local policy to segregate black and white children into different local schools.

Katherine got a degree in French and Mathematics from West Virginia State College and graduated summa cum laude (which is Latin for ‘With Highest Praise’!). She started her career as a high school teacher in Virginia.

She went to the Langley Research Centre and became part of a pool of mathematicians. Langley Research Centre http://www.larc.nasa.gov is where all the cutting edge technology goes on for NASA today and soon Katherine was transferred to the NASA flight research program.

She remarked of the 1950’s that "It was a time when computers wore skirts.”

She meant that at the time the men were far too busy doing rocket building stuff and researching into space survival and being mortal enemies with their Soviet counterparts in Russia…..

……which meant the tricky, time consuming and intricate business of the maths that had to be done was left to the women. When she said computers wore skirts, she meant the women in the maths pools were the computers!

Click here to find out more.

Her work would have scrambled many people’s brains. Using simple paper and pencils Katherine calculated many complex algebraic equations and interplanetary trajectories. As the Space Race was hotting up, there was a lot of pressure to get men up into space. If she wasn’t 100% accurate it could make the difference between an astronaut coming back alive – or not coming back at all.

As a member of NASA’s historic 1961 team Katherine’s calculations placed the USA’s first astronaut, right on target, and she charted the course for John Glenn in 1962 and for Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon in 1969.

She developed the first emergency navigation systems for astronauts by mapping exactly what stars they should be seeing at specific points in their missions. She also analysed data gathered from tracking stations around the world for the Apollo missions to develop better navigational procedures.

She was the recipient of many NASA awards during her time there. After an illustrious and much appreciated career she retired in 1986.

Next time you look into the sky at night think of Katherine and her careful pencil and paper calculations all those years ago.

And you can tell anyone who says that women can’t read maps all about Katherine G Johnson!

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