Contributions of Black Mathematicians to Space Exploration

Abi’s Black Excellence Fridays: Katherine Johnson🚀 In 1962, John Glenn was about to become the first American to orbit Earth. But he refused to launch until Katherine Johnson personally verified the IBM computer’s calculations. “If she says they’re good,” Glenn said, “then I’m ready to go.” Think about that. A Black woman’s mathematical genius was the final word on whether America’s space program could proceed. Katherine Johnson didn’t just calculate trajectories, she calculated her way through Jim Crow laws, using “colored” bathrooms while computing the mathematics that would define the space race. When she started at NASA (then NACA) in 1953, she was literally called a “computer” because that’s what they called the Black women who did the complex calculations by hand. Here’s what they don’t teach you: Katherine insisted on attending briefings where women were banned. She asked so persistently that they eventually relented. She co-authored 26 scientific papers at a time when women’s contributions were routinely erased. When NASA transitioned to electronic computers, she was the one teaching the machines. Her calculations didn’t just put Americans in space, they brought them home safely. From Mercury to Apollo 11 to the Space Shuttle, Katherine’s work touched every major moment in space exploration. Yet her name remained classified, hidden in history, for decades. 🥹 She lived to 101, long enough to see Hidden Figures tell her story, receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and have NASA facilities named in her honor. Long enough to inspire countless Black girls to see themselves in STEM. In an era where we debate whether AI will replace human brilliance, remember Katherine Johnson – proof that innovation requires not just computation, but courage, intuition, and the audacity to demand your seat at the table. 💫 AA✨ (Substack link in comments 👀) —————————————————— Every Friday, I celebrate Black pioneers whose brilliance shaped our world. These are the phenomenal figures who transformed impossibilities into history. ✊🏾

The Space Race was won with equations… equations calculated by three Black women in the segregated back wing of NASA. For decades, the story of NASA’s achievements focused on white male engineers and astronauts. But behind the headlines were the “hidden figures” who solved the equations that sent John Glenn into orbit and helped Apollo 11 land on the Moon. In 2016, Margot Lee Shetterly’s book "Hidden Figures" (and the film that followed) finally told the world about Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. All three started as a “human computer” at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Lab during segregation—forced to eat, work, and pee separately from their white colleagues. 1. Katherine Johnson Katherine started high school at 13. In 1953, she took a job in the all-Black West Area Computing Section, led by Dorothy Vaughan. She was pulled onto a crash analysis project and calculated launch trajectories and orbital reentry paths by hand. In 1960, she coauthored “Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position.” It was the first time a woman in her division received authorship credit on a NASA report. Then came 1962. John Glenn was prepping for his Friendship 7 orbital mission—the first by an American. He didn’t trust the IBM computers, so he said: “Get the girl to check the numbers. If she says they’re good, I’m ready to go.” Katherine ran the equations. Glenn flew. America won a major battle in the Space Race. Johnson also calculated the rendezvous path for the Apollo Lunar Module. In 2015, at 97, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 2. Dorothy Vaughan She was hired by NACA (NASA’s precursor) in 1943 during WWII and assigned to the segregated West Area Computing unit, where she crunched aeronautics data. In 1949, Vaughan was promoted to lead the West Area Computing Section, making her the first Black supervisor at NACA. But Vaughan saw the next transition coming: from humans to IBM machines. So she taught herself FORTRAN and trained her entire team. Then she led NASA’s first integrated programming section in the Analysis and Computation Division. She retired in 1971 after 28 years. She never got another management title. But all the women she trained carried her legacy forward. 3. Mary Jackson In 1951, Mary landed in West Computing at Langley—working under Dorothy Vaughan. Two years later, engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki pulled her into the supersonic pressure tunnel, where they blasted models with wind at 2x the speed of sound. He urged her to become an engineer. But to qualify, she had to take night classes at a whites-only high school. So she petitioned the city for permission. She got in. She got the grades. And in 1958, she became NASA’s first Black female engineer. In 2021, NASA renamed its DC headquarters in her honor. ----------------- 💡 Follow Justine Juillard for 365 stories of female innovators in 2025.

When John Glenn refused to board Friendship 7 in 1962, he had one condition: ‘Get the girl—Katherine Johnson—to check the numbers.’ That girl was Katherine Johnson, a brilliant Black mathematician working at NASA during the intense Space Race. NASA had started using new electronic computers for the complex trajectory calculations needed to send humans into space. But Glenn, preparing to be the first American to orbit Earth, wasn't ready to fully trust the machines for his life. He insisted Johnson personally verify the computer's output. Johnson worked in a segregated unit known then as the West Area Computing Unit, staffed by Black women who served as 'human computers.' Her calculations had already been crucial for Alan Shepard’s first American suborbital flight in 1961. For Glenn's pivotal 1962 flight, her confirmation of the orbital equations gave the go-ahead for one of America's great space milestones. 🚀 Johnson's skills remained essential even as technology advanced. For the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, her calculations helped synchronize the lunar lander with the command module orbiting the Moon. Her work also proved vital during the Apollo 13 emergency, where her development of backup procedures helped the crew navigate safely back to Earth. Throughout her career at NASA, which lasted until 1986, she co-authored 26 scientific papers and contributed to the Space Shuttle program. 👩💻 In 2015, Katherine Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, recognizing her pioneering work and contributions to the nation's space exploration. Her dedication and mathematical genius were foundational to America's achievements in space. Sources: NASA archives, Presidential Medal of Freedom citations#KatherineJohnson #NASA #WomenInSTEM