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Hidden Hero

Meet one of the little-known geniuses of the U.S. space program.

This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in the March 20, 2017, issue of Scholastic News Edition 4.

Hopper Stone/SMPSP TM & © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.  All Rights Reserved.  (Taraji P. Henson) ; NASA (Katherine Johnson)

Katherine Johnson (right) is played by actress Taraji P. Henson in the movie Hidden Figures.

In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. These historic events would not have been possible without Black female mathematicians like Katherine Johnson.  

Johnson worked for the U.S. air and space programs for 33 years. During that time, she calculated the flight paths that rockets followed into space. But not many people knew about Johnson before the movie Hidden Figures came out. Based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, the film tells the story of Johnson and other pioneering Black female mathematicians. 

NASA

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon in July 1969.

A Human Computer

To truly appreciate Johnson’s achievements, it’s important to understand the world she lived in. She graduated from West Virginia State College in 1937. 

At the time, only about 10 percent of women earned college degrees. Johnson went into teaching, one of the few careers that were open to women.

In 1952, she landed a job at the Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia. That was the main aircraft research facility in the U.S. Back then, computers weren’t widely used yet. Instead, the math needed to design, test, and fly planes was done by “human computers” like Johnson. These women used pencils, simple adding machines, and their math smarts to make those difficult calculations.

Also, when Johnson started working at Langley, segregation was still legal. She and her Black co-workers were kept separate from the White women who did the same job. Even so, her talents didn’t remain hidden. Johnson was soon chosen to join a group of White men and women who later helped launch the first Americans into space. 

Johnson says her biggest achievement was getting the astronauts home from the moon safely in 1969. They had a small window of time to blast off and reconnect with their shuttle in space. Johnson calculated the precise time that the two vehicles needed to connect.  

Johnson remained proud of her contribution to the space program until her death in 2020 at age 101.

“I went to work every day for 33 years happy,” she said.

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