Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician depicted in 'Hidden Figures,' dies at 101


Katherine Johnson, one of the history-making, barrier-breaking NASA mathematicians depicted in "Hidden Figures," died Monday, the administrator of NASA said.

She was 101.

"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," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement.

In a tweet, he called Johnson "an American hero."

She said her greatest contribution to space exploration was making "the calculations that helped sync Project Apollo's Lunar Lander with the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module." In other words, helping to put men on the moon in 1969.

But astronauts weren't keen on "putting their lives in the care of the electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts," according to NASA. So Glenn asked engineers to "get the girl," referring to Johnson, to run the computer equations by hand. “If she says they're good,'” Johnson remembered Glenn saying, “then I'm ready to go.”
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