Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson, A Black Nasa Pioneer, Finds Acclaim At 98

... hero.”. Johnson speaks these days with a slight rasp in her voice but carries the same confidence that prompted NASA engineers to turn to her for help in planning the Mercury and Apollo space missions by, among other things, calculating the distance between Earth and the moon. Her daughters, Joylette Goble Hylick and Katherine Goble Moore, said she’s seen “Hidden Figures” three times. And while Johnson doesn’t remember seeing every single shot or scene in the film, her memories of her work are sharp. Clad in a pink turtleneck and a snow white shawl, with her silver hair styled gently atop her head, Johnson recalled how John Glenn, the astronaut and longtime senator who died last month, insisted on her calculations for Friendship 7, the first mission to orbit Earth. “Get that girl,” she remembered Glenn saying. How, she was asked, did she know Glenn was referring to her. Johnson shrugged and said, “He knew I had done [the calculations] before for him, and they trusted my work,” she said. “He asked me to do it, and I did it.”. At the end of the day, ...

Katherine Johnson Led African American Efforts In Space Travel

... her about positions opening at the all-black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA) Langley laboratory, headed by fellow West Virginian Dorothy Vaughan. Johnson and her husband decided to move the family to Newport News, to pursue the opportunity, and she began work at Langley in 1953. After just two weeks on the job, Director Vaughan assigned Johnson to a project in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division and her position soon became permanent. The next four years would be spent analyzing data from flight tests and investigating the crash of a plane caused by wake turbulence. The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957 would change history and Johnson’s future. In 1957, she had provided some of the math for the 1958 document Notes on Space Technology, a compendium of a series of 1958 lectures given by engineers in the Flight Research Division and the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division. Engineers from those ...

Spa City Lane Named For Katherine Johnson

... — The name of one of the Spa City’s most famous natives will soon be splashed all around town. Retired NASA mathematician Katherine Coleman Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs in 1918 but lived in the town for only 10 years before her family pulled up stakes and moved to Institute so she could attend high school at what is now West Virginia State University. At the time, there was no high school that black children could attend in White Sulphur. In the 1950 s, Johnson and other African American women, who were known as “computers,” worked on vital calculations at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the precursor to NASA. But their key role in the space race remained largely unpublicized until author Margot Lee Shetterly wrote about the women in the book “Hidden Figures,” released in September of last year and now a major motion picture. By the time the book was published, Johnson — who now lives in Virginia — had already been awarded the Presidential Medal of ...

The Woman Who Was A 'hidden Figure

... “I worked all my life, all kinds of jobs.”. Hidden Figures Broke Ground for Modern Figures at NASA. News 4’s Barbara Harrison took a trip to NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, the location of the story told in the movie “Hidden Figures,” to find out what’s going on there now. (Published Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017). The bigger challenge was overcoming racial prejudice. John Glenn trusted Johnson’s telemetry calculations over those from computers that were relatively new at the time. “Yes, he was like me,” she said. “He didn't trust … the computers.”. He knew her equations done by hand had worked for some very high-stakes missions. So how did she feel about so much weight riding on her arithmetic. “No problem.”. 'La La Land' Takes Top Honors at Producers Guild Awards. Math never stumped Johnson. She is a legend now at NASA, where a lot has changed since her 33 years there. She was a major catalyst for that change. Her brilliant mind for math led to great strides in the race to get to space and back. Octavia Spencer Picks up 'Woman of the Year' Award. She says she was just doing her job, but her parts putting America out front in the pioneering days ...

Wv Colleges Plan Tribute Statues For Nasa’s Katherine Johnson

... this year, including Best Picture. A White Sulphur Springs native, Johnson calculated the effect of launch conditions in 1962 so NASA’s Friendship 7 mission could be performed safely. The mission allowed astronaut John Glenn to be the first American to orbit the Earth. Because NASA was using new electronic data processors at the time, Glenn specifically requested Johnson to double-check the calculations to ensure a safe mission. Johnson also helped synchronize Project Apollo’s Lunar Lander with the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module, and worked on the Space Shuttle and the Earth Resources Satellite, according to her NASA biography written by Shetterly. It’s a story worth telling. Johnson, who went by Katherine Coleman before she married, enrolled at the West Virginia State College campus when she was 18. The school then was known as the West Virginia Colored Institute. She graduated summa cum laude in 1937. Johnson later became the first African-American woman in the graduate school at West Virginia University, ...

Moonlight' Wins Best Picture After Incorrect Announcement

... a charged moment. Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director whose film “The Salesman” won the award, refused to attend the ceremony in the wake of the recent travel ban and sent Iranian astronaut Anousheh Ansari to read a statement. “Dividing the word into the ‘us’ and ‘them’ categories creates fear,” Farhadi’s statement read. “It’s a deceitful justification for aggression and war.”. As of 11 p.m., the top Oscars had yet to be handed out, leaving the evening’s most talked-about film, the musical “La La Land,” with only one Oscar, for production design but lost two Oscars. Mel Gibson’s World War II biopic “Hacksaw Ridge” took home awards for sound mixing and film editing, while sci-fi drama “Arrival” won sound editing. Other highlights. Tweets from @Newsday/newsday-staff. ALMOST THERE. With her supporting actress ...

Hidden Figures Fun Facts

... Contenders included Oprah Winfrey and Viola Davis. 2. Taraji P. Henson admitted that prior to filming she didn’t know about the three women she and her two costars would go on to portray. “I didn’t know [the story] until I got the script,” Henson said. “And I went to an historically black university, where Ron Mc Nair — who died in the [Space Shuttle] launch to space — [had attended]. I actually studied electrical engineering. I failed, but I was there. And this man has a building named after him. If it wasn’t for Katherine Johnson, there would have been no Ron. But hey, who am I? Never heard of her. I was annoyed. I was mad. And this became my passion project. I was like, ‘I have to do this movie.’”. 3. Upon hearing that Hidden Figures was given the green light to start filming, NASA employees hoped to lend a hand. “They sent the script over, I commented on it and then spent a lot of time on the phone with Ted [Melfi, the film’s ...

What Happened At The Oscars That You Didn‘t See On Tv

... Rebecca Keegan will be filing dispatches of all the amazing moments you won’t see on the telecast. 8:25 p.m. PT: “I can't shake any hands tonight,“ La La Land composer Justin Hurwitz said as he exited the stage, clutching an Oscar in each fist after his wins for best score and best song (the latter with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul). “This is the greatest.”. As John Legend warmed up for his performance, singing scales backstage, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling watched on a monitor as Linus Sandgren won the cinematography prize for their movie. “Yeah! Yeah!” Stone said, clapping and jumping up and down, and greeting Sandgren with a giant hug as he left the stage. Meryl Streep and her husband, Donald Gummer, stood watching Legend's performance on a monitor with their arms around each other. “I'm following you, man,” a lost Denzel Washington said to Viggo Mortensen in the hallway behind the stage. “You know where you're going.”. 7:57 p.m. PT: “Your best friend is behind you, John,” Chrissy Teigen said, as Ryan Gosling walked into the green room behind her and her husband, John Legend. “He name drops you every ...

A Hidden Figure At Wvu And Nasa

... her to a career mostly dominated by white males. She became one of three African-American students—and the only female—selected to integrate the graduate school. While Johnson desegregated WVU, she was unable to find a job in her field as a woman. She worked as a substitute math teacher in a public school for Newport News, VA, until 1952, when she applied as a mathematician at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA became NASA in 1958). Johnson was offered a job in 1953, and became part of the NASA team in its early years of the space program. In 1961, she became the first African-American woman on the team to calculate the trajectory for the first American in space. Working as an aerospace technologist, some of Johnson’s greatest achievements included. — Calculating the trajectory for the first American in space, in 1961. — Verifying computer numbers to calculate John Glenn’s orbit around Earth. — ...

Casey Affleck Wins Best Actor For 'manchester By The Sea

... for best documentary feature, which goes to O. J.: Made in America. "This is incredible," says director Ezra Edelman, who thanks the Academy for honoring "this nontraditional film" and pays tribute to not only the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman but also victims of "criminal injustice.". Last Slide Next Slide. 9:01: Colleen Atwood gets her fourth career Oscar for costume design, taking the award for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In other news, it's La La Land's first loss of the night, though it can still break the record of 11 total Oscar wins. 8:58: Sorry, haters: That's OSCAR-WINNING Suicide Squad, which takes the honor for best makeup and hairstyling. Mahershala Ali accepts the Oscar for supporting actor for his role in ‘Moonlight.'. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY NETWORK). 8:49: Mahershala Ali wins the first big trophy of the night, best supporting actor for Moonlight. "My grandma would want me to ...

Highlights And Winners

... into the auditorium via small packages on parachutes. Hollywood steps out on Oscars night. The next awards, presented by Sofia Boutella and Chris Evans, went for sound editing and sound mixing. “Arrival” took home sound editing, while “Hacksaw Ridge” took sound mixing. Vince Vaughn acknowledged the latest recipients of the Governor’s Awards - including Jackie Chan - before a highlight reel of best supporting actress acceptance speeches ushered in this year’s award, presented by Mark Rylance. This year, best supporting actress went to Viola Davis for “Fences,” her first Oscar and third nomination. “There’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered, and that’s the graveyard,” she said from the stage, saying she wanted to exhume the stories of the people who never saw their dreams come true. “We are the ...

Taraji P. Henson’s Glamorous Oscars 2017 Alberta Ferretti Look Is An Homage To Katherine Johnson

... blue velvet gown was a far cry from the romantic and frothy semi-sheer Reem Acra concoction she wore to last month’s SAG Awards. But as Henson told Vogue, the Ferretti gown spoke to the “strength and brilliance” of her onscreen Figures character Katherine Johnson. The plunging neckline and high-slit detail of the silhouette also gave a heavy nod to the glamour of Old Hollywood, an era that her stylist Jason Bolden explained is a constant reference point for the two. “For this look, our inspiration was vintage Hollywood glamour—a consistent go-to for us,” he said. “Taraji is fun and known for the big characters she plays in film and on television. But she’s also multifaceted, so we went with showing her other side.”. Photo: Courtesy of Taraji P. Henson. When presented with the idea of working with Ferretti on the custom design, Henson immediately gravitated toward the line’s feminine slant. “I fell in love with the romantic ...