Katherine Johnson

American Mathematician

In 1962, the United States decided to send people to the Moon. Getting to and from the Moon would take a lot of work as the U.S. space agency, NASA would have to solve many problems. So NASA created large teams to solve them.

Katherine studied how to use geometry for space travel. She figured out the paths for the spacecraft to orbit (go around) Earth and to land on the Moon). NASA used Katherine's math and sent astronauts into orbit around Earth. Later, her math helped send astronauts to the Moon and back. NASA could not have done these things without Katherine Johnson.