From l. to r.: Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, Taraji P. Henson as Johnson, and Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan in Hidden Figures.
Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox
She was a freshman in high school at the age of 10, and graduated from college at just 18.
Johnson during her work with NASA.
Photo Credit: NASA
One of Johnson’s first NASA assignments was to look at the black box data from crashed airplanes.
Johnson at NASA.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
She Worked Backwards to Make Project Mercury a Success
Johnson (far right) at Langley Research Center in 1970.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Johnson worked on the calculations that allowed the Apollo astronauts to return home from the Moon.
- Photo Credit: NASA
She literally wrote the book on rocket science
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015
- Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
NASA named a research center after her
She was honored in Barbie form
Mattel's Inspiring Women Katherine Johnson Barbie.
Photo Credit: Mattel
A documentary about her premiered in 2019
Katherine Johnson will continue to inspire future generations, even after her death
Want to learn more about Johnson and her fellow human computers? Download Margot Lee Shetterly's book Hidden Figures!
