![]() This school was on the campus of West Virginia State College (WVSC) Johnson was enrolled when she was ten years old. Because Greenbrier County did not offer public schooling for African-American students past the eighth grade, the Colemans arranged for their children to attend high school in Institute, West Virginia. Johnson showed strong mathematical abilities from an early age. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman. Katherine Johnson was born as Creola Katherine Coleman on August 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to Joylette Roberta (née Lowe) and Joshua McKinley Coleman. In 2021, she was inducted posthumously into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2019, Johnson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress. Henson as a lead character in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. Melvin and a NASA Group Achievement Award. In 2016, she was presented with the Silver Snoopy Award by NASA astronaut Leland D. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. ![]() 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. Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a mission to Mars. 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. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist". 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. Other projects that were vying for Lego production included depictions of the Addams Family Mansion and the Large Hadron Collider.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. "Girls, in that they can and should be engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, and boys, in that they internalise at an early age that these careers are for everyone, not only men."Ī Lego spokesperson says Women of NASA is slated for launch later this year. "I hope it sets a new example for both girls and boys," Weinstock told the BBC. It is still determining the final product design – the photos accompanying this story were part of the proposal submitted by Weinstock. Lego says it is particularly excited about the "inspirational value" of the set. "Excited to be part of such a great group of women," Jemison tweeted after the announcement, "And even more jazzed about women in STEM!" Astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space.Nancy Grace Roman, who served as NASA's chief astronomer and is seen as "instrumental in making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality.".Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, who was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work that contributed to Apollo 11's landing on the moon.Other NASA women honored in Lego form are: She was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. ![]() Johnson, who is now 98 years old, appeared on stage at the Academy Awards on Sunday. The set features Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician whose story was featured in the recent film Hidden Figures. It beat out eleven other projects in the Lego Ideas competition, which each had to receive votes from 10,000 supporters to be eligible. She said the set is meant to shed light on the rich history of women in STEM professions. "Yet in many cases, their contributions are unknown or under-appreciated – especially as women have historically struggled to gain acceptance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics." space program," Weinstock wrote in her project proposal. "Women have played critical roles throughout the history of the U.S. ![]()
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