Katherine Johnson, the real-life hero depicted in the movie Hidden Figures has passed away at the age of 101.
Johnson was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the Oscar-nominated 2016 film about trailblazing black women whose work at NASA was integral during the space race.
Henson expressed how honored she was to bring Johnson’s story to life.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine released a statement on Twitter.
Our @NASA family is sad to learn the news that Katherine Johnson passed away this morning at 101 years old. She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten. https://t.co/UPOqo0sLfb pic.twitter.com/AgtxRnA89h
— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) February 24, 2020
Johnson was mostly known for greatly contributed to the first American orbital spaceflight, piloted by John Glenn.
She also did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard‘s 1961 mission Freedom 7, which was America’s first human spaceflight, according to NASA.
Johnson 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 — which was beautifully told in the movie.
“Hidden Figures” also stars Octavia Spencer as the mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as the engineer Mary Jackson.
The work of the women altered the country’s history but their names were largely unknown until the movie received acclaim. Jackson died in 2005, and Vaughan died in 2008.
Johnson began working at NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1953 at the Langley Laboratory in Virginia.
She also made history, before her NASA career, when she and two men became the first three black students to be offered admission to West Virginia University after the state “quietly” integrated its graduate schools in 1939, according to NASA.
Johnson enrolled in the graduate math program but left school after the first session to start a family with her husband, James Goble. The couple had three daughters, and she returned to teaching when they grew older.
In 1952, a relative told her about the position in the all-black West Area Computing section at NACA. She and Goble moved their family to Newport News, Virginia, to pursue the position. Johnson was placed on a temporary project, but her role quickly became permanent.
Goble died of Cancer in 1956. Johnson married Lieutenant Colonel James Johnson in 1959.
President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, in 2015.
West Virginia State University has commemorated Johnson’s accomplishments with a bronze statue on campus and a scholarship in her name.
And last July, when Johnson was 100, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held when a NASA facility in West Virginia was reintroduced as the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility.
Thank you for your contribution to this world, Mrs. Johnson. A true hero. RIP.
