02/24/2020
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02/24/2020
American mathematician Katherine Johnson died at the age of 101, NASA announced on Monday. His calculations allowed the United States to conquer the Moon.
A great figure among black Americans, his career inspired the film “The Shadow Figures”, released in 2016, adapted from the book by Margot Lee Shetterly. The work tells of the all too often overlooked contribution of black women to the American conquest of space.
The scientist had remained relatively unknown until President Barack Obama awarded her in 2015 the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian distinctions in the United States.
“Colored computer”
A graduate in mathematics, Mrs. Johnson joined the American space program – the future Nasa – in 1953, and her main task was to control the work of her superiors using calculations. At that time, racial segregation was still in effect in the United States, and Mrs. Johnson worked as a “Colored computer” with dozens of other black mathematicians, away from their white colleagues.
It was only in 1958 that his team was integrated into other NASA divisions, to be part of the first manned space flight program in the United States. Katherine Johnson then participated in the calculations for the flight of Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space.
“Breaking down race barriers”
During her three-decade career with the space agency, Ms. Johnson developed crucial equations that enabled the United States to send astronauts into orbit and to the Moon, formulas still used in contemporary aerospace science. In particular, she calculated the trajectories of Apollo 11, the historic mission that made Neil Armstrong the first man to walk on the Moon in 1969.
NASA paid tribute to the scientist on Monday. “She was a hero of America, a pioneer whose legacy will never be forgotten,” wrote James Bridenstine, head of the US space agency. Katherine Johnson has helped “eliminate racial and gender barriers,” said NAACP, the largest black defense organization in the United States.
ats, dpa
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