Creola Katherine Johnson (née Coleman; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights.

[1][2] During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks.

[3] Johnson's work included calculating trajectories, launch windows, and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon.

She was known as a "human computer" for her tremendous mathematical capability and ability to work with space trajectories with such little technology and recognition at the time.

This school was on the campus of West Virginia State College (WVSC);[13] Johnson was enrolled when she was ten years old.

Several professors mentored her, including the chemist and mathematician Angie Turner King, who had guided Coleman throughout high school, and W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African-American to receive a doctorate in mathematics.

Through WVSC's president, John W. Davis, she became one of three African-American students,[16] and the only woman, selected to integrate the graduate school after the 1938 United States Supreme Court ruling in Missouri ex rel.

[12][22] Johnson decided on a career as a research mathematician, although this was a difficult field for African Americans and women to enter.

At a family gathering in 1952, a relative mentioned that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was hiring mathematicians.

[8] According to an oral history archived by the National Visionary Leadership Project: At first she [Johnson] worked in a pool of women performing mathematical calculations.

Katherine's knowledge of analytic geometry helped make quick allies of male bosses and colleagues to the extent that, "they forgot to return me to the pool".

[30] As a computer, she calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space...John Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations...before his flight aboard Friendship 7...on which he became the first American to orbit the Earth.Author Margot Lee Shetterly stated, "So the astronaut who became a hero, looked to this black woman in the still-segregated South at the time as one of the key parts of making sure his mission would be a success."

[30] In 1961, her work helped to ensure that Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 Mercury capsule would be found quickly after landing, using the accurate trajectory that had been established.

When the mission was aborted, her work on backup procedures and charts helped set a safe path for the crew's return to Earth,[30] creating a one-star observation system that would allow astronauts to determine their location with accuracy.

"[32] Later in her career, Johnson worked on the Space Shuttle program, the Earth Resources Satellite,[1][30] and on plans for a mission to Mars.

[33] Johnson spent her later years encouraging students to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

"Jim" Johnson, a United States Army officer and veteran of the Korean War; the pair were married for 60 years until his death in March 2019 at the age of 93.

[41][7] Following her death, Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, described her as "an American hero" and stated that "her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten.

[47] President Obama said at the time, "Katherine G. Johnson refused to be limited by society's expectations of her gender and race while expanding the boundaries of humanity's reach.

"[1] Science writer Maia Weinstock developed a prototype Lego for Women of NASA in 2016 and included Johnson; she declined to have her likeness printed on the final product.

[55] In August 2018, West Virginia State University established a STEM scholarship in honor of Johnson and erected a life-size statue of her on campus.

[58] In June 2019, George Mason University named the most prominent building on their SciTech campus, the Katherine G. Johnson Hall.

In February 2021, Northrop Grumman named its Cygnus NG-15 spacecraft to supply the International Space Station the SS Katherine Johnson in her honor.

[64] The film Hidden Figures, released in December 2016, was based on the non-fiction book of the same title by Margot Lee Shetterly, which was published earlier that year.

"[66] In a 2016 episode of the NBC series Timeless, titled "Space Race", the mathematician is portrayed by Nadine Ellis.