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Katherine Johnson

Creola Katherine Johnson (née Coleman, previously Goble; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician and human computer whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform tasks previously requiring humans. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist". 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. Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a human mission to Mars. In 2015 President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016, she received the Silver Snoopy Award from NASA astronaut Leland D. Melvin and a NASA Group Achievement Award. She was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. In 2019, the United States Congress awarded Johnson the Congressional Gold Medal and NASA announced the establishment of the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in her home state of West Virginia. In 2021, she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility

The Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility is a NASA facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, housing the agency's Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) program, which supports the verification and validation of mission-critical software. Established in 1993 following recommendations from the National Research Council and the Presidential Commission into the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the program provides independent systems engineering and analysis to identify defects, reduce development costs, and mitigate risks in safety- and mission-critical systems. The IV&V program operates under the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) and is administratively part of Goddard Space Flight Center. In 2022, the program consolidated its operations and approximately 250 personnel into a single facility to reduce costs and eliminate leased office space. The facility is named for Katherine Johnson, a West Virginia–born mathematician whose work at NASA was critical to early human spaceflight programs and was featured in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.

NASA Headquarters

The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters is a building at 300 E Street SW in Washington, D.C. that houses NASA leadership, who provide overall guidance and direction to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a U.S. government executive branch agency led by the NASA administrator. Ten field centers and a variety of installations around the country conduct the agency's day-to-day work. The James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium, named for NASA's second administrator, James E. Webb, hosts agency news conferences and NASA Social events. A lending library, the history office, archives, production facilities for NASA TV, and a NASA gift shop are also located in the building. The building opened in 1992 as Two Independence Square as part of the two-building Independence Square complex, which was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. It is owned by South Korean investment firm Hana Asset Management and leased to NASA through 2028. On June 12, 2019, the street in front of the building was given the honorary name Hidden Figures Way in honor of some of NASA's Black women mathematicians—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary W. Jackson—who were central figures in the 2016 book Hidden Figures and its film adaptation. On June 24, 2020, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that the headquarters building had been renamed the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters, after NASA's first Black woman engineer. A ceremony officially renaming the building was held on February 26, 2021. In 2023, NASA opened an exhibit in the lobby, marking the first time the agency welcomed the public into the building. The Earth Information Center exhibit shows how NASA views Earth from space, tracking patterns in air temperature and quality, climate, water levels, and ecosystems, and how these data can help humans understand and address climate change. The entrance to the exhibit also features a large NASA worm sculpture, dedicated in honor of its designers, Bruce Blackburn and Richard Danne, as well as NASA's former art director Robert Schulman. NASA's lease on the building expires in August 2028, and the agency has expressed that it plans to move out of the building, looking for a smaller space of approximately 375,000 to 525,000 square feet (34,800 to 48,800 m2).

Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film co-produced and directed by Theodore Melfi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Allison Schroeder. It is loosely based on the 2016 book by Margot Lee Shetterly. It follows three female African-American mathematicians, Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), who worked at NASA during the Space Race in the 1950s and 1960s. Other stars include Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Aldis Hodge, and Glen Powell. Principal photography began in March 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia, and wrapped up in May 2016. Other filming locations included several other locations in Georgia, including East Point, Canton, Monroe, Columbus, and Madison. Hidden Figures had a limited release on December 25, 2016, by 20th Century Fox, before going wide in on January 6, 2017. The film received positive reviews, with praise for the performances (particularly Henson, Spencer and Monáe), the writing, direction, cinematography and emotional tone. Some critics and historians wrote that the film conflated timelines, condensed several real figures into composite characters, and dramatized or invented incidents depicting segregation at Langley, and some argued it featured a white savior narrative. The film was a commercial success, grossing $237 million worldwide against its $25 million production budget. The film was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016 and received various awards and nominations, including three nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Katherine Johnson

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Slow Fade to Black: Katherine Dunham

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NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration]

Johnson Space Center Roundup, Spring 2017

Moses THRU Nasa

Gross, Joseph - Johnson, Paul (3 of 3)

Portrait of Katherine Dunham Dance Company

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Katherine Dunham

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