Katherine Johnson Biography, Age, Birth, Children, Parents, Death, Education

katherine johnson, Many people would consider one of their most memorable experiences in life to be chosen as one of the three Black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools, but for Katherine Johnson, it was only one of many milestones that marked her long and remarkable life. She was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, in 1918, and thanks to her insatiable curiosity and math prowess, she advanced through the grades. By the age of 13, she was a high school student at West Virginia State College, a historically black institution. When she was 18, she enrolled in the college itself, where she excelled in the math program and found a mentor in W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, a professor of mathematics and the third African American to receive a Ph.D. in the subject.

Full Name	Katherine Johnson
Children	Joylette Goble, Katherine Goble, Constance Goble
Died	24 February 2020
Date Of Birth/Birthday:	26 August 1918
Parents	Joylette Coleman, Joshua Coleman

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How did Katherine Johnson change the world?

For America’s first human spaceflight, Freedom 7 in May 1961, Johnson performed a trajectory analysis. She is renowned for checking the computer’s math for John Glenn’s historic first orbital spaceflight by an American in February 1962 at a time when digital computers were still relatively new and untested.

What did Katherine Johnson do to be famous?

Johnson authored or coauthored 26 research reports over the course of her career. Johnson also had a significant impact on NASA’s crewed spaceflight Mercury program (1961–1963). She determined the flight path for Freedom 7, the spacecraft that carried Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American astronaut, into space in 1961.

What was the most important thing Katherine Johnson?

She calculated the spacecraft’s orbital (around the Earth) and lunar landing paths. NASA used Katherine’s math, and it was successful! NASA launched astronauts into Earth orbit. She later contributed math to the Moon and back missions for astronauts.

What makes Katherine Johnson a hero?

Johnson contributed to the geometry calculations for Alan Shepard’s flight in May 1961, which served as the country’s inaugural human spaceflight. She additionally contributed to the completion and validation of the calculations for John Glenn’s 1962 flight, which resulted in the first successful orbit in space.