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Katherine Johnson, NASA math genius and 'Hidden Figures' hero, has passed away at age 101

Jim Bridenstine/Twitter

Today the world says goodbye to a legend. Katherine Johnson, whose invaluable work for the U.S. space program earned her countless awards, and whose profound success in the face of both sexism and racial segregation resulted in a feature film about her contributions, has passed away at age 101.

Prior to the 2016 film, Hidden Figures, most of us had no idea who Katherine Johnson was, despite the fact that she was responsible for many of NASA's early space flight calculations in the era before computers. Johnson was a "human computer," and a brilliant one at that.

In fact, she was so brilliant that when the first actual computers were used to determine the trajectory of the Friendship 7 mission, astronaut John Glenn insisted that NASA "get the girl" to double check the computer's calculations by hand. "If she says they're good, then I'm ready to go," Katherine Johnson recalled Glenn saying.

However, as a black woman in the 1950s and 60s, Johnson faced racial and gender discrimination both in society in general and in her chosen field. The infamous "bathroom speech" delivered by Taraji P. Henson as Johnson in Hidden Figures offered the world a taste of what the mathematician was up against.

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Johnson worked for 33 years for the NASA Langley Research Center. In 2015, at age 97, Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. In 2018, NASA renamed its Independent Verification and Validation Facility (IV&V) in West Virginia to the Katherine Johnson IV&V Facility.

A trailblazer in more ways than one, Katherine Johnson will be greatly missed.

"Our NASA family is sad to learn the news that Katherine Johnson passed away this morning at 101 years old," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine posted to Twitter. "She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten."

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NASA also released a statement praising Johnson's legacy and her contribution to "raising the bar of human potential":

"NASA is deeply saddened by the loss of a leader from our pioneering days, and we send our deepest condolences to the family of Katherine Johnson. Ms. Johnson helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space even as she made huge strides that also opened doors for women and people of color in the universal human quest to explore space. Her dedication and skill as a mathematician helped put humans on the moon and before that made it possible for our astronauts to take the first steps in space that we now follow on a journey to Mars. Her Presidential Medal of Freedom was a well-deserved recognition.

"At NASA we will never forget her courage and leadership and the milestones we could not have reached without her. We will continue building on her legacy and work tirelessly to increase opportunities for everyone who has something to contribute toward the ongoing work of raising the bar of human potential."

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'I figured this movie would be a good starting point to show girls that even when life gets hard, you have to keep going.'

On Dec. 15, 2016, 13-year-old space enthusiast Taylor Richardson had the experience of a lifetime.

She saw a special screening of "Hidden Figures" at the White House alongside the cast of the movie, first lady Michelle Obama, and several NASA astronauts.

From left, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, and Kevin Costner. Photo by NASA/Aubrey Gemignani.

Not only was the biopic about Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan — three women who were the unsung heroes behind the first successful NASA missions into space — inspiring to Richardson on many levels, what hit home most for her was what Michelle Obama said about everything they were up against.

"These women couldn’t even drink from the same water fountain or use the same bathroom as many of their colleagues … and folks didn’t always take these women seriously because they were black and also because they were women," Obama explained that night.

The first lady also talked about how few women — and even fewer women of color — there are working in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields today.

The experience made Richardson want to do whatever she could to show girls that their STEM skills are not only welcome, but finally being celebrated.

"I've been to four space centers, and not once were these women and their contributions that impacted our space program mentioned," writes Richardson in an email.

Photo via Fox Movies.

She decided to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to offer 100 girls the chance to see "Hidden Figures" for free in the theater.

"I figured this movie would be a good starting point to show girls that even when life gets hard, you have to keep going," Richardson explains.

She included in her budget goal enough money for each girl to get a snack and a copy of the book on which the movie was based.

Literacy is very important to Richardson, who regularly collects gently used STEM books and donates them to schools and children in need. "I've donated over 3,000 books and read to over 250 kids in Jacksonville about STEM and space," Richardson says.

In just 18 days, she exceeded her goal of $2,600 five times over. That extra money will go toward more screenings for girls who could use some STEM inspiration right now.

Richardson with NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle. Photo via Taylor Richardson.

Despite women's growing in STEM work and space exploration these days, there is still a major disparity of women of color in these fields. No doubt the lack of representation in the history books and, until recently, on screen has something to do with that.

While Richardson's idea to provide free movie screenings may seem small, her commitment to changing the game for women of color in STEM is not.

She's far from alone in seeing what the impact a movie like "Hidden Figures" can have on the next generation of girls.

— (@)

There's a reason "Hidden Figures" has remained #1 at the box office for two weeks straight, beating out blockbusters like "Rogue One." Representation matters — for girls dreaming of being astronauts, women of color who have trouble finding role models, and anyone else who feels left out of history.

Hopefully, thanks to movies like "Hidden Figures," more and more girls will realize there is a place for them in STEM fields.

Richardson, whose goal is to be the first person to walk on Mars, offers some sound advice for girls on the fundraising page: "It's important that girls not only look at the stars but take the steps to reach for them."

— (@)

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She helped put a man on the moon. Now Katherine Johnson is getting her own movie.

Taraji P. Henson stars as space scientist Katherine Johnson.

Mathematician and NASA scientist Katherine Johnson isn't exactly a household name, but that may soon change.

Johnson, best known for her role calculating the trajectories for NASA's Mercury and Apollo missions by hand — including the moon landing — is one of the greatest American minds of all time.

And to think you may not have ever even heard about her.

Katherine Johnson. Photo by NASA.

Johnson's space science career began in 1953 at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, NASA's predecessor) at Langley Research Center's Guidance and Navigation Department. Johnson's title: computer. (Seriously, before computers were computers, really super-smart people like Johnson were computers.) Neat, right?

Now 97, Johnson is finally getting some much-deserved credit for her work, including an upcoming movie based on her life.

In 2015, President Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls.

And more than 10,000 people have signed on in support of making a "Women of NASA" Lego set featuring Johnson, Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, Margaret Hamilton, and Nancy Roman.

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But the biggest boost to Johnson's name recognition is likely to come from "Hidden Figures," a movie starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe as Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson, respectively. The film is based on the book of the same name, written by Margot Lee Shetterly.

Representation matters. History books can only tell part of the story, and they often leave out important characters.

Though jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are some of the fastest-growing career paths in the U.S., women make up just 14% of engineers nationwide.

While a single movie highlighting the lives of women of color working in a STEM field isn't likely to eliminate the representation gap, girls around the country will at least be made aware that yes, they can be mathematicians or engineers or scientists if they want to. At the very least, "Hidden Figures" might finally make Katherine Johnson the household name she always should have been.

Heroes

What we can learn from NASA's pictures of awesome women.

NASA posts a lot of cool images.

Like mystical earth phenomena...

Can you imagine flying along and seeing THAT out your window? Image from NASA/ESA.

...and robot selfies from Mars.

Cheese! Image from NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS .

In short, NASA's photos are awe-inspiring and completely breathtaking.

But the photo NASA posted for International Women's Day may be one of the space agency's most inspiring:

Image from NASA.

This 2010 photo was the first time four women were in space at the same time.

So who are the badass women in NASA's International Women's Day photo?

1. Stephanie Wilson, an engineer and the second African-American woman in space.

Stephanie Wilson in a training module. Image from NASA.

2. Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, a former high school astronomy and earth sciences teacher, who served as a mission specialist on that particular flight.

Working in microgravity requires a little ingenuity when it comes to moving stuff around. Image from NASA/Wikimedia Commons.

3. Naoko Yamazaki, an engineer and researcher who was part of the Japanese Aerospace eXploration Agency and the second Japanese woman in space.

Naoko Yamazaki eats a snack in microgravity. Image from NASA.

4. And Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a chemist, who served as flight engineer and performed three successful spacewalks on that mission.

Tracy Caldwell Dyson in the ISS' cupola, looking through the — hands-down — best windows in the solar system. Image from NASA/WIkimedia Commons.

Since the photo was taken in 2010, Yamazaki and Metcalf-Lindenburger have retired from spaceflight and moved on to different things, but Wilson and Dyson are still active in the astronaut program.

NASA owes a great debt to women, and it's great to see the agency highlighting their contributions.

Though the first astronauts were mostly male, there's a long list of awesome ladies without whose hard work humans would have never left the planet.

Women like Katherine Johnson, an African-American woman who calculated trajectories for the missions that put the first Americans in space and for the moon landing. She was so good that when NASA first started using computers, they called her in to verify the numbers.

Image from NASA.

Lately, Johnson's been getting the credit she deserves. President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. A movie about her life and the other women who worked alongside her, starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe, is slated to hit theaters in 2017.

Since Johnson began working at NASA, 58 different women have flown into space — and 49 women have flown in missions with NASA — in a variety of roles from engineers and specialists to managers and educators to commanders and crew.

As of March 2016, there are only three people in space, none of whom are women, but thanks to NASA's 2013 astronaut class, more are on the way.

The 2013 astronaut candidate class is evenly split, with four men and four women — including Christina Hammock Koch, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Anne McClain, Jessica Meir. This is the class of astronauts who might be part of our first mission to Mars!

They're probably already preparing their "one small step" speeches and I, for one, can't wait to hear them.

At a time when it's so crucial that we show kids that women have an equal place in STEM fields, it's great to share these women's stories and make sure their contributions are not forgotten.

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