![]() Here are just a few of the unsung heroes and heroines whose behind-the-scenes work helped make it happen. ![]() More than 400,000 people dedicated years of their lives to make the Apollo 11 moon landing possible. ![]() Kennedy’s goal of reaching the lunar surface by 1970, NASA's bold missions - and crippling tragedies - since that historic day, and the future of space exploration and Houston as America's "Space City.” Our special Apollo 50 anniversary coverage explores how the country came together to fulfill President John F. MISSION MOON: Nearly 50 years have passed since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. Katherine Johnson, shown here in 1979, spent more than three decades as a mathematician at NASA and the NACA. NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson at her desk at Langley Research Center in 1966. NASA officially renamed a facility in West Virginia after Johnson, whose barrier-breaking career was depicted in the film “Hidden Figures.” CHET STRANGE, STR / NYT Show More Show Less 7 of8 Katherine Johnson, left, and Christine Darden, two of the first African-American women to work as mathematicians at NASA, at the Hampton History Museum, in Hampton, Va., on Aug. Photographer / NASA/Bill Ingalls Show More Show Less 6 of8 24, 2015, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. The 300 block of E Street SW in front of the NASA Headquarters building was designated as "Hidden Figures Way." NASA/Joel Kowsky, Photo Editor/Photographer / (NASA/Joel Kowsky) Show More Show Less 5 of8įormer NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson is seen after President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tuesday, Nov. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, and Margot Lee Shetterly, author of the book “Hidden Figures,” right, unveil the Hidden Figures Way street sign at a dedication ceremony, Wednesday, June 12, 2019, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Evan Vucci, STF / Associated Press Show More Show Less 4 of8 24, 2015, file photo, baseball legend Willie Mays, right, applauds NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, after she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. NASA Langley Research Center Show More Show Less 3 of8 NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson photographed at her desk at NASA Langley Research Center with a globe, or "Celestial Training Device," in 1962. The book will be made into a movie starring Taraji Henson, Janelle Monae, and Octavia Spencer.NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson at work at NASA Langley Research Center in 1980. In her upcoming book, Hidden Figures, she tells the stories of the African-American women mathematicians who helped America win the Space Age. ![]() Writer Margot Lee Shetterly is making sure Johnson and other women like her aren’t forgotten. During her 30-year career, she coauthored more than two dozen scientific papers. (The college is now a university.) Johnson calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard’s historic 15 minute flight into space in 1961, as well as the trajectory for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. And at NASA, at the dawn of the Space Age, most of the people doing the computing were women.Īmong the best of those “human computers” was Katherine Johnson, graduate of West Virginia State College, an HBCU located in Institute, near Charleston. Before there was such a thing as a Macbook or a Thinkpad, before there was a Commodore 64, complicated computations had to be performed by humans.
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