Katherine Johnson: Hidden Figures Nasa mathematician dies at 101
Written by laserteam on February 24, 2020
Via BBC:
Nasa announced her death on Twitter, saying it was celebrating her life and honouring “her legacy of excellence that broke down racial and social barriers”.
Ms Johnson calculated rocket trajectories and Earth orbits for Nasa’s early space missions.
She was portrayed in the 2016 Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures.
The film tells the story of African-American women whose maths skills helped put US astronaut John Glenn into orbit around the Earth in 1962. Ms Johnson verified the calculations made by new electronic computers before his flight.
Ms Johnson had previously calculated the trajectory for the space flight of Alan Shepard – the first American in space. She also played a key role in sending humans to the Moon.
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