Katherine Johnson was born on August 26, 1918 in West Virginia. She was chosen to be one of the three black students to integrate the graduate school in West Virginia and after receiving a PhD in Mathematics in 1937, she became a teacher in a black public school. She joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA’s) in 1953 where she analyzed data and helped send astronauts to the Moon. In 1960, she was the first woman in the Flight Research Division to receive credit as an author of a research report because she worked with Ted Skopinski, an engineer, to create a report that laid the equations describing an orbital spaceflight in which the landing position of the spacecraft is specified. She was known as the West Computers because she provided mathematical computations that were essential to the success of the early U.S space program. She is an iconic figure in history because she was one of the first women, especially women of color, to work in NASA in a higher position and co-write a research report.
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