![]() The highlights? Calculations for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit - not to mention rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the moon. There, she calculated trajectories, launch windows, and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights. “You lose your curiosity when you stop learning.”īy 1958, she had moved into the Spacecraft Controls Branch. The space agency refers to her historical role as “one of the first African American women to work as a NASA scientist.” ![]() A Rocketing Careerĭuring her 33-year career at NASA (and its predecessor NACA), she earned herself a reputation for acing complex manual calculations and pioneering the use of computers. Johnson accepted a job offer from the agency in June 1953 and was initially assigned to Dorothy Vaughan’s group. At a family gathering in 1952, a relative mentioned that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was hiring mathematicians - including African Americans. She began working as a teacher, but her life would soon change dramatically. By 1937, she graduated from West Virginia State with degrees in mathematics and French at the age of just 18. ![]() Although Greenbrier County did not offer public schooling for African American students past the eighth grade, her parents were determined to support her talent and enrolled her at a high school in Institute, West Virginia when she was 10 - splitting their time between there and their home in White Sulphur Springs. spaceflights into orbit.įrom an early age, Johnson revealed amazing mathematical abilities. Creola Katherine Johnson (1918–2020) was a talented African American mathematician and NASA employee whose calculations helped set the first crewed U.S.
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