#Katherine johnson nasa 100 movie movie

Yvonne Cagle, the keynote speaker at the ceremony and the space and life sciences directorate at the Johnson Space Center. Johnson has continued to persevere and thrive with the gracious poise and clarity that defies mere words of explanation, let alone definition,” said Dr. “What makes Katherine so extraordinary is she not only prevailed while segregation failed, Dr. The scholarship in Johnson’s name was awarded to freshmen Jasiaha Daniels and Alexis Scudero, both of whom are studying in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. The bronze statue of Johnson was unveiled Saturday, one day before she turned 100. Henson in the 2016 film “ Hidden Figures,” according to the West Virginia Gazette. Hundreds of people ― including 75 of Johnson’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren ― attended the event honoring the woman who was portrayed by Taraji P. West Virginia State University honored NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson’s 100th birthday with a statue and scholarship dedication over the weekend.

Henson portrayed Johnson in 2016’s “Hidden Figures.” James Johnson, a veteran of the Korean War.Taraji P. Johnson and her first husband, James Francis Goble, who died of a brain tumor in 1956, had three daughters. She wished it away, willed it out of existence inasmuch as her daily life was concerned.” “She knew just as well as any other black person the tax levied upon them because of their color. “She didn’t close her eyes to the racism that existed,” Margot Lee Shetterly wrote in “Hidden Figures.” The orbital mechanics guru was part of the team that supported Alan Shepard, who became the first American to reach space on the 15-minute suborbital flight aboard Mercury’s Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961. They worked in facilities separate from their white counterparts, though Johnson always maintained said she was too busy to be concerned with racism, according to Reuters. Katherine Johnson at the at NASA Langley Research Center in 1966. Getty ImagesĪfter working as a schoolteacher for seven years, Johnson went to work for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a NASA forerunner in 1953 along with dozens of other black women.ĭuring the space race between the US and the former Soviet Union that began in the late 1950s, Johnson and her colleagues used pencils, slide rules and rudimentary calculators to crunch numbers for unmanned rocket launches. Katherine Johnson working at the NASA Langley Research Center in 1980. She earned degrees in math and French before becoming one of the first black students in the graduate school at West Virginia University in 1938. Thanks to her astounding math skills, Johnson was accepted into West Virginia State College when she was just 15.

26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to a teacher and a farmer, both of whom stressed education and moved the family 120 miles to a town that had a high school for black kids. “He knew I had done (the calculations) before for him and they trusted my work,” Johnson, who continued her work during the early years of the space shuttle program, told the Washington Post in 2017. “Get the girl to check the numbers,” said Glenn, who became the first American to orbit the globe. John Glenn, one of the famed Mercury Seven spacemen, thought so highly of Johnson that he insisted that she be consulted before his mission aboard Friendship 7 on Feb. Henson (eft) portrays Katherine Johnson with Janelle Monáe in ‘Hidden Figures.’ 20th Century Fox Licensing/Merch

#Katherine johnson nasa 100 movie movie

The movie also stars Octavia Spencer as mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as engineer Mary Jackson.ĭuring the Academy Awards ceremony in 2017, Johnson was given a standing ovation when she joined the film’s cast in presenting an award for documentaries.ĭuring her stellar 33-year career at NASA, Johnson worked on the Mercury and Apollo missions - including Apollo 11’s first moon landing in 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on Earth’s satellite. Katherine Johnson (center), director Ezra Edelman and producer Caroline at the 89th Annual Academy Awards.