Katherine Johnson, NASA.
Born on August 26 of 1918 in White Sulphur Springs WV. Katherine Joseph went to high school at the age of 10 and graduated from college at the age of 18. Throughout Katherine Johnson’s extraordinary career, there hasn’t been a boundary she hasn’t broken through or a ceiling she hasn’t shattered. In the early 1950s, she joined the organization that would one day become NASA, and which had only just begun to hire black mathematicians. Her job there was to analyze data and calculate the complex equations needed for successful space flights. As a black woman in an era of brutal racism and sexism, Katherine faced daily challenges and often wasn’t taken seriously by the scientists and engineers she worked with. But her colleagues couldn’t ignore her obvious gifts—or her persistence. Soon she was computing the trajectory for Alan Shepard’s first flight and working on the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the moon. Katherine’s life has been a succession of achievements, each one greater than the last.
Katherine Johnson, NASA.
Dorothy Vaughan became the first black female supervisor at NASA, living in a segregated time wasn't easy but she still managed to achieve great things. She became an expert FORTRAN programmer, and she also contributed to the Scout Launch Vehicle Program. Her legacy lives on in the successful careers of notable West Computing alumni, including Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Eunice Smith and Kathryn Peddrew, and the achievements of second-generation mathematicians and engineers such as Dr. Christine Darden.
Dorothy Vaughan, courtesy Vuaghan Family.
Since Mary Winston Jackson’s early life, she excelled in her studies. She graduated with highest honors from high school and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Physical Science. Despite all of the obstacles that came up in her path, she became the first black female engineer at NASA. She took on a series of jobs that included teacher, bookkeeper, receptionist until she was offered work at NASA as a mathematician for the 4-foot by 4-foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, a 60,000 horsepower wind tunnel capable of blasting models with winds approaching twice the speed of sound. She got awards during her career and helped the hire and promote other female engineers. She left a legacy and her life as well as the lives of Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan are captured in the movie Hidden Figures.
Mary Jackson, NASA.