“I am thrilled we are honoring Katherine Johnson in this way as she is a true American icon who overcame incredible obstacles and inspired so many,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said according to USA Today. “It’s a fitting tribute to name the facility that carries on her legacy of mission-critical computations in her honor.”
Working her way through the ranks of NASA in the racially segregated 1950s and 1960s, Johnson was one of the “colored computers” who worked on calculations for several space missions in a time when computers were not trusted. Most famously she verified the results given by computers to calculate the orbit for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission – at Glenn’s own insistence. Glenn demanded that engineers “get the girl” – that is Johnson – to verify the numbers before the mission. That flight ended in success, making Glenn the first American to orbit Earth. Johnson was also behind the calculations of Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission the year before, which made him the first American in space. Johnson’s contributions largely went unnoticed until 2016 when the best-selling book, followed shortly by the movie – led everyone through her courageous and groundbreaking story. Johnson, who turned 100 in August, was thankfully still present when her accolades started rolling in. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian honor in the United States. In 2017, NASA dedicated a computational research facility in her honor, and in December she was inducted into NASA’s Paul E. Garber First Flight Society Shrine, USA Today notes.