The Remarkable Story of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson

“Hidden Figure” in World of Women Empowerment

By Pahal Bhasin

“Have the girl check the numbers!” Astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, famously said, since his probability to survive and return back to Earth was 1 (out of 6)!. At a time when digital computers were relatively new and untested, Glenn wanted a “black female human computer” to confirm the numbers thrown out by IBM computers to get more comfort before his historic first orbital spaceflight in February 1962. That “black female human computer” was Katherine Johnson!

Katherine Johnson is someone I had heard about but didn’t know too much about, till I recently saw her documentary “Outlier: The Story of Katherine Johnson” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzBePhHh62M), and I was so inspired reading about her journey from humble West Virginia roots to supporting NASA leading humankind to the Moon. She discovered her love for numbers and problem-solving at a young age. She grew up in a household that really valued education and learning. She was always willing to learn more, and her passion and immense dedication helped her skip a few grades, and graduate from college at the age of 18. When Katherine was 35, she joined NACA (later called NASA) where they hired Black women to solve math problems.

Katherine contributed significantly during a brilliant 33-year career that stretched from 1953 to 1986 with NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and its predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. A few worth highlighting are:

- Mercury Project: Completed trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s first human spaceflight.

- Freedom 7 Mission: Validated calculations for the John Glenn’s orbit travel

- Apollo 11 Mission: Helped sync the lunar lander with the moon-orbiting command and service module to get the astronauts back to Earth

- Apollo 13 Mission: Provided backup procedures that helped ensure the crew's safe return after their craft malfunctioned.

- Co-authored 26 technical reports, helped to develop the space shuttle program and Earth resources satellite.

Besides, she also helped pave the way for the diversity that currently extends across all levels of  NASA. Aa black woman working for NASA in the 1950s and '60s, Johnson overcame social boundaries and racial discrimination. Knowing her contributions demonstrated to me how one can fight against all odds, if they are passionate and dedicated. Her accomplishments were deservedly highlighted in the book and also the movie “Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race”. Johnson died on Feb. 24, 2020, at age 101, but her empowering legacy lives on and motivates us all.

I feel inspired to achieve my goals and work through all my hardships, as

Katherine’s dad's words resonate with me “She was no better than anyone else,

and that no one was better than her”. Katherine displayed strong dedication. For

example, Katherine applied for a job at NASA, but the jobs were already taken. Still, she did not give up. She applied again the next year, and this time NACA/NASA hired her. During the job, Katherine was different from the other human computers. She wanted to learn more about her work and about NASA and asked a lot of questions. She he started going to meetings. Before Katherine, only men attended these meetings. She learned so much that she left her job as a computer and became a team member who worked on many NASA

projects. Post retirement, Katherine spent the following years speaking to students about her extraordinary career, encouraging them to pursue STEM education. "Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away" she said at the NASA Trailblazers and Legends STEM Conference in Cape Canaveral, Florida "There will always be science, engineering and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics. Everything is physics and math."

I am determined to encourage diversity in STEM, since diverse thoughts are needed to tackle tough complex challenges of the world. I have already started baby steps towards my vision. In 2020, I co-founded a global, student-run, technology-focused, registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (steambloom.com) to promote Artificial Intelligence (and other STEM fields) education for diverse students (females, minorities, and students from low- income background) by providing them access to world-class resources and hosting a variety of outreach events, webinars, and workshops for free. We have already reached 2000+ students from 25+ countries. Inspired by Katherine’s empowering work, I would continue the STEM advocacy work, promoting CS knowledge among underrepresented students. I consider Katherine Johnson as my role model for women empowerment.