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 Featured Sols 4214–4215: The Best Laid Plans...3 min readSols 4214–4215: The Best Laid Plans...article2 days ago Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil2 min readHubble Observes a Cosmic Fossilarticle1 day ago Voyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instruments2 min readVoyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instrumentsarticle2 days ago
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 Highlights A large propeller plane takes off from a runway, surrounded by brown and green grasses with low buildings out of focus in the background. The plane is white with a blue stripe down the middle, and has a NASA logo on the tail. The sky is a hazy blue with some clouds.

	2 min read

		NASA-Led Mission to Map Air Pollution Over Both U.S. Coasts

		article

			21 hours ago Students watch a sounding rocket launch at sunrise.

	4 min read

		NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to Launch Student Experiments

		article

			22 hours ago NASA’s Hubble Restarts Science in New Pointing Mode

	3 min read

		NASA’s Hubble Restarts Science in New Pointing Mode

		article

			22 hours ago
 Highlights A woman with long, wavy hair and a bright smile sits at a round table during a formal event, surrounded by other attendees. She is wearing a brown cardigan and a patterned blouse.

	5 min read

		Lakita Lowe: Leading Space Commercialization Innovations and Fostering STEM Engagement

		article

			3 days ago NASA’s Repository Supports Research of Commercial Astronaut Health

	2 min read

		NASA’s Repository Supports Research of Commercial Astronaut Health

		article

			4 days ago NASA astronaut Doug “Wheels” Wheelock and Axiom Space astronaut Peggy Whitson prepare for a test of full-scale mockups of spacesuits developed by Axiom Space and SpaceX’s Starship human landing system developed for NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon.

	4 min read

		NASA Astronauts Practice Next Giant Leap for Artemis

		article

			2 weeks ago
 Highlights A large propeller plane takes off from a runway, surrounded by brown and green grasses with low buildings out of focus in the background. The plane is white with a blue stripe down the middle, and has a NASA logo on the tail. The sky is a hazy blue with some clouds.

	2 min read

		NASA-Led Mission to Map Air Pollution Over Both U.S. Coasts

		article

			21 hours ago NASA Announces New System to Aid Disaster Response

	4 min read

		NASA Announces New System to Aid Disaster Response

		article

			2 days ago Amendment 21: A.3 Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry: NSPIRES cover page issue and Delay of Proposal Due Date

	2 min read

		Amendment 21: A.3 Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry: NSPIRES cover page issue and Delay of Proposal Due Date

		article

			3 days ago
 Highlights The Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon

	17 min read

		The Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon

		article

			2 days ago Mars Dunes

	5 min read

		NASA’s Perseverance Fords an Ancient River to Reach Science Target

		article

			2 days ago Ed Stone, former director of JPL and project scientist for the Voyager mission, died on June 9, 2024. A friend, mentor, and colleague to many, he was known for his straightforward leadership and commitment to communicating with the public.

	5 min read

		Ed Stone, Former Director of JPL, Voyager Project Scientist, Dies

		article

			4 days ago
 Featured Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil

	2 min read

		Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil

		article

			1 day ago WL20 group of stars is located in the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region

	5 min read

		NASA’s Webb Reveals Long-Studied Star Is Actually Twins

		article

			2 days ago Artist's illustration of a star system near the Sun that is close enough to Earth for exoplanets in their habitable zones to be directly imaged using future telescopes.

	4 min read

		Coming in Hot — NASA’s Chandra Checks Habitability of Exoplanets

		article

			3 days ago
 Highlights Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil

	2 min read

		Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil

		article

			1 day ago Voyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instruments

	2 min read

		Voyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instruments

		article

			2 days ago WL20 group of stars is located in the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region

	5 min read

		NASA’s Webb Reveals Long-Studied Star Is Actually Twins

		article

			2 days ago
 Highlights Illustration showing several future aircraft concepts flying over a mid-sized city with a handful of skyscrapers.

	7 min read

		ARMD Solicitations

		article

			2 weeks ago Team “Rumble Ready” from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, comprised of (from left to right) Professor Mark Gonda, Nicole Xie, Junaid Bodla, Jordan Ragsac, Krishi Gajjar, Gerald McAllister III, and Leara Dominguez, took home first place at the 2024 Gateways to Blue Skies Forum held May 30-31 at NASA Ames Research Center. They are standing in a row posing for the photo; the team members are wearing blue t-shirts, black pants, and tennis shoes.

	4 min read

		Winners Announced in Gateways to Blue Skies Aeronautics Competition

		article

			2 weeks ago Graphic shows a possible future General Electric jet engine with exposed fan blades in front of a cut-away-interior view of its core mechanisms -- all part of NASA's HyTEC research project.

	4 min read

		NASA, Industry to Start Designing More Sustainable Jet Engine Core

		article

			4 weeks ago
 Highlights Simulated Roman image full of synthetic galaxies

	6 min read

		NASA’s Roman Mission Gets Cosmic ‘Sneak Peek’ From Supercomputers

		article

			3 days ago Ed Stone, former director of JPL and project scientist for the Voyager mission, died on June 9, 2024. A friend, mentor, and colleague to many, he was known for his straightforward leadership and commitment to communicating with the public.

	5 min read

		Ed Stone, Former Director of JPL, Voyager Project Scientist, Dies

		article

			4 days ago Astronaut-packaged cheese sandwiches

	2 min read

		Food Safety Program for Space Has Taken Over on Earth

		article

			5 days ago
 Featured A team from Iowa accepts its Artemis grand prize award during NASA’s Lunabotics competition on Friday, May 17, 2024, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

	5 min read

		Artemis Generation Shines During NASA’s 2024 Lunabotics Challenge

		article
			2 weeks ago
 Highlights Students watch a sounding rocket launch at sunrise.

	4 min read

		NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to Launch Student Experiments

		article

			22 hours ago A large propeller plane takes off from a runway, surrounded by brown and green grasses with low buildings out of focus in the background. The plane is white with a blue stripe down the middle, and has a NASA logo on the tail. The sky is a hazy blue with some clouds.

	2 min read

		NASA-Led Mission to Map Air Pollution Over Both U.S. Coasts

		article

			21 hours ago NASA astronaut and Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Victor Glover reviews procedures on a computer for the Monoclonal Antibodies Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) experiment inside the Harmony module.

	2 min read

		NASA Joins National Space Council in Celebration of Black Space Week

		article

			20 hours ago
 Highlights NASA Astronaut Official Portrait Frank Rubio

	5 min read

		Astronauta de la NASA Frank Rubio

		article

			23 hours ago 2021 Astronaut Candidates Stand in Recognition

	6 min read

		Diez maneras en que los estudiantes pueden prepararse para ser astronautas

		article

			3 months ago Astronaut Marcos Berrios

	4 min read

		Astronauta de la NASA Marcos Berríos

		article

			3 months ago


3 min read Katherine Johnson: The Girl Who Loved to Count


NASA
 “I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed ... anything that could be counted, I did.” So said Katherine Johnson, recipient of the 2015 National Medal of Freedom. Administrator Bolden, Deputy Administrator Newman Statements on Johnson’s Medal of Freedom Born in 1918 in the little town of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson was a research mathematician, who by her own admission, was simply fascinated by numbers. Fascinated by numbers and smart to boot, for by the time she was 10 years old, she was a high school freshman–a truly amazing feat in an era when school for African-Americans normally stopped at eighth grade for those could indulge in that luxury. Former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson is seen after President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington.
NASA / Bill Ingalls
 Her father, Joshua, was determined that his bright little girl would have a chance to meet her potential. He drove his family 120 miles to Institute, West Virginia, where she could continue her education through high school. Johnson’s academic performance proved her father’s decision was the right one: Katherine skipped though grades to graduate from high school at 14, from college at 18. Katherine Johnson speaks with astronaut Leland Melvin during a NASA STEM education event.
Katherine Johnson
 In 1953, after years as a teacher and later as a stay-at-home mom, she began working for NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. The NACA had taken the unusual step of hiring women for the tedious and precise work of measuring and calculating the results of wind tunnel tests in 1935.  In a time before the electronic computers we know today, these women had the job title of “computer.”  During World War II, the NACA expanded this effort to include African-American women.  The NACA was so pleased with the results that, unlike many organizations, they kept the women computers at work after the war.  By 1953 the growing demands of early space research meant there were openings for African-American computers at Langley Research Center’s Guidance and Navigation Department – and Katherine Johnson found the perfect place to put her extraordinary mathematical skills to work. NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson is photographed at her desk at Langley Research Center in Hampton
NASA
 As a computer, she calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Even after NASA began using electronic computers, John Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations made by the new electronic computers before his flight aboard Friendship 7 – the mission on which he became the first American to orbit the Earth. She continued to work at NASA until 1986 combining her math talent with electronic computer skills. Her calculations proved as critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program, as they did to those first steps on the country’s journey into space. From honorary doctorates to the 1967 NASA Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations team award (for pioneering work in the field of navigation problems supporting the five spacecraft that orbited and mapped the moon in preparation for the Apollo program) Katherine Johnson has led a life positively littered with honors. But on Tuesday, November 24, 2015, she will receive the nation’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Barack H. Obama. Not bad, for a little girl from West Virginia, who coincidentally (or maybe not) was born on August 26: Women’s Equality Day. **On the Web:** From Hidden Figures to Modern FiguresKatherine Johnson BiographyShe Was a Computer When Computers Wore SkirtsKatherine Johnson: A Lifetime of STEM


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 Page Last Updated:
								Jul 25, 2023
							Page Editor:
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												Responsible NASA Official:
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