Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician and trailblazer for racial justice who is one of the space agency's most inspirational leaders, has died. She was 101. Johnson died Monday of natural causes at a retirement community in Newport News, Va., family attorney Donyale Y. H. Reavis told The Associated Press. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement that 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."
Johnson initially worked with other black women in a racially segregated computing unit in Hampton, Va., that wasn't officially dissolved until NACA became NASA in 1958. Signs had dictated which bathrooms the women could use. Johnson focused on airplanes and other research at first. But her work at NASA's Langley Research Center eventually shifted to Project Mercury, the nation's first human space program. The esteemed mathematician was featured in the 2016 film "Hidden Figures," which told the story of a group of African-American women whose contributions were integral to NASA's initial space missions. Johnson was portrayed by the actress Taraji P. Henson in the movie, which won several awards.
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https://www.foxnews.com/science/katherine-johnson-nasa-mathematician-hidden-figures-dies
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