KATHERINE JOHNSON - THE NASA COMPUTER DIED 101

Katherine Johnson was a NASA mathematician who broke social and racial barriers. She died on the 24^th February at the age of 101. She was an African-American woman who had a key role in many NASA projects. She calculated rocket trajectories and Earth orbits for Nasa's early space missions. Ms Johnson verified the calculations made by new electronic computers before that flight. Ms Johnson had previously calculated the trajectory for the space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in space. She also played an important role in sending humans to the Moon. She was one of the first women and especially black women to work for NASA.

WHO WAS KATHERINE JOHNSON?

Katherine was born in White Sulphur Springs a small town in West Virginia, in 1918, and since she was a child, she showed a vivid interest in numbers. She graduated from high school just at the age of 14 with excellent marks and then she got a degree at the age of 18. She first worked as teacher and then she was a stay-at-home mum. When after the war there was a lack of employees US government allowed black people to be hired in the defence sector, so NASA started looking for black women as calculators. Katherine was hired in 1953. During the space race between the US and the former Soviet Union, Ms Johnson and her African-American colleagues worked in facilities separated from white workers, and used different toilets and dining areas. She always said she was too busy with her work to be concerned about being treated unequally.

Johnson worked on the Space Shuttle program until 1986, then spent her retirement encouraging students to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In 2015, Barack Obama awarded Johnson the presidential medal of freedom. In November 2019, she was selected to receive to the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour presented by Congress to a civilian.

THE REACTION TO HER DEATH

Nasa led tributes to Ms Johnson following her death, describing her as an "American hero",  whose "pioneering legacy will never be forgotten".

Among tributes there is also the science writer Maryam Zaringhalam who posted a quote by Johnson: “Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men.”

Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also paid tribute to Ms Johnson on Twitter. "Her calculations helped put Americans in space, in orbit, and, finally, on the Moon," she wrote.

HIDDEN FIGURES

In 2016 Katherine’s life inspired a wonderful Oscar-nominated film called “Hidden figures”. The film shows her job and her life at NASA, her importance in the projects and how her gender or her skin colour didn’t allow others to stop her talent. She once said: "I didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research. You had a mission and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job ... and play bridge at lunch. I didn't feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it."

Have you watched the film yet? Well, what are you waiting for?

FRANCESCA