Juan Garcia 1/23/18Ms: Lockhart KHSComputer Support.
KatherineJohnson Katherine Johnson head to overcome many difficulties to get towhere to used to be when she was working for the NASA. “Katherine Johnson wasborn in August 26, 1918, in West Virginia, she made the most of limitededucational opportunities for African Americans during 1930s”. When she was 18years old, she graduated from college. She later joined the aeronautics as a”computer” before it became NASA. In 1939, Katherine married James FrancisGoble, with who she had 3 daughters. In her early stages, it was very hard, butshe still managed to skip the grades she was on due to her gift for number. Sheenrolled in West Virginia State College.
Katherine and other 2 students wereresponsible for desegregating West Virginia State College. In the 1930s, Katherine was a math teacher and French teacher at aschool in Virginia and West Virginia. Katherine proved that her calculation werealways correct and even better than the IBM computers. After getting recruitedto the aeronautical division, and work there for 2 weeks, she was transferredfrom the African American computing pool to Langleys flight researchdivision, where she asked for permission to meetings where she earnedadditional responsibilities. In 1956, a horrible news arrived to her office,her husband had died from a brain tumor. Despite her amazing calculatingskills, she was often denied access to meeting for the simple reason that shewas a woman and, that she was colored. Katherine had to work hard to getaccepted into West Virginia College, but one day, secretly she was accepted byWest Virginia State’s president Dr.
John W. Davis along with other 2 malestudent to be the first African Americans to attend that college. The 1957 Launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik changed the courseof history, as well as Katherine’s life. But in that same year, Katherineprovided the math calculations for the 1958 Document “Notes on SpaceTechnology” which has some of the lectures given by engineers. OverallKatharine can be treated as a woman who put a lot of effort when it comes todoing her work, but she also has a soft heart when it comes to taking care of those she love the most. She used to most of her time working, but whenshe had some time off she went back to her house to play with her daughters.Katherine and an Engineer wrote a report for the 1960s Earth Position for thesatellite.
In 1962 NASA was preparing for the orbital mission of John Glenn,and Katherine was called to calculate the trajectory for which then she wouldbecome most known for. Whenever I remember the time I watched the film “Hidden Figures”,and remember about the book, where her life and the other two iconic women atNASA, I start thinking about how different my times are, compared to thosetimes they lived on. Katherine Johnson was so trusted by Glenn that when theysaid if he was sure with the calculations made by the IBM computer, that he wasasking Katherine if those calculations were right, and if not, with hercalculation was more than enough. The IBM calculations were off, so they askedif Katherine would do it. She did and in an interview she said “I rememberGlenn say, if she did all the calculation and said they were right, and then I’mready to go”.
After all her achievements, in 2015 she added another one to herlist, President Obama awarded Katherine the “President Medal Of Freedom”.