Celebrating Katherine Johnson’s remarkable journey; a story of math, the moon and a lifelong mission
Dr Katherine Johnson, an African- American icon, pioneering
and Space Administration (NASA), which spanned 30 years. NASA’s Northrop Grumman Corporation recently honoured the late Dr Katherine Johnson by naming its NG-15 Cygnus spacecraft after her. It is the corporation’s tradition to name each Cygnus spacecraft after an individual who has played a fundamental role in human spaceflight. Katherine Johnson was responsible for the hand- written calculations that paved the way for the United States of America’s success during its first human-spaceflight missions. Katherine Johnson’s journey from child prodigy to NASA ‘human computer’ is detailed in a biography that she co-authored with her daughters, Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore,
This inspirational children’s book by National Geographic-Kids highlights Katherine Johnson’s experience as a young black mother of three who navigated the challenging world of the 1950s and 1960s, succeeded in an unwelcoming industry and became one of the legendary “hidden figures” of NASA computing and space research. In the book, Dr Johnson specifies April 2019 as an important milestone, which entailed her receiving her 13th honorary doctorate from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. The University of Johannesburg (UJ) honoured Katherine Johnson with an honorary doctorate in April 2019, which was accepted by her daughters, Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore. In the words of Professor Debra Meyer, the Executive Dean of the UJ Faculty of Science, Dr Katherine Johnson “paved the way for young women, in particular black women, to work and excel in STEM fields, and she did this in a time when segregation was the norm, and the deliberate exclusion of black people from intellectual pursuits, the order of the day. Katherine Johnson’s mathematics talent and computer skills gave the United States of America the edge in winning the space race. Her work contributed to putting the first men into space and eventually on the moon. During her more than three-decades- long career at NASA, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations, combining her mathematics talent with computer skills to solve problems of an astrophysics nature.” Prepared by Ms Ofentse Olunloyo and Prof D Meyer.
mathematician and 2019 UJ Honorary Doctoral degree recipient, is well-known for breaking through gender and racial barriers during her tenure as a ‘human computer’ at the National Aeronautics
entitled My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir , and recently published.
In the biography, Dr Katherine Johnson wrote, “How could I have imagined that from ages 97 to 101, I would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (with a kiss from my favorite president); appear onstage at the Oscars; receive thirteen honorary doctorate degrees, including one from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa; have four major buildings named in my honor, including a second NASA facility; and need extra storage to house the multitude of plaques, framed certificates, and boxes of mail that would come from all over the world?” Katherine Johnson also documented her incredible journey in another recently published book that she also co-authored with her daughters, One step Further – My story of Math, the Moon and a Lifelong Mission.
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