There are many blind spots in the history of US space travel. For example, the biographies of NASA's "star envoys" and their way to the sky are thoroughly known, but only a few know that the door to "American space" was opened by several genius women, who were called "women-computers." Among them was the African-American Catherine Johnson …
Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory of the first spacecraft
The human past, upon close examination, is often not as unambiguous as it seems. For example, America in the 50-60s of the XX century appears as a territory of rabid McCarthyism and racism, a time of "witch hunts" and panic fear of the "red threat".
However, the fate of specific people, the same Catherine Johnson, reminds that in this past there was a place for a great dream and for real freedom.
Love for numbers
After World War II, the two superpowers of that time - the USSR and the USA - raised their heads to the sky. The leaders of both countries, their learned elite understood that whoever was the first to break through to the stars would also take possession of the fruits of these labors. But ordinary citizens of these countries lived with their earthly, much more prosaic problems. As they did before the war.
Promotional video:
In any case, the parents of Catherine, who was born in 1918, had something to think about besides the starry sky overhead. The fact is that handyman Joshua and former teacher Joylett, who lived in a tiny town in West Virginia, had four children. And the parents, in addition to the ability to read and write, wanted their children to be able and know something else. For example, they were fluent in mathematics or physics. Agree, for a dark-skinned handyman of the 1920s, barely making ends meet, this was not an ordinary desire.
The most talented and in-demand turned out to be Catherine, who from an early age was found to have remarkable talent for mathematics. She loved everything about numbers, equations and counting. Subsequently, she described her passion as follows: “I counted everything in the world. I counted the steps along the road, the steps by the church, the number of dishes and cutlery that I washed."
So, counting, Catherine graduated from eight classes. Her success was so impressive that her parents transferred the girl to another school, which was 120 miles from her hometown. There it was possible to continue education, and then enter a higher educational institution. In order for Catherine to continue studying, her parents abandoned their home during the school year and moved 120 miles, if only the daughter did not bury her talent in the ground.
And Katherine coped with the tests. At age 15, she entered West Virginia State College, and in 1938, West Virginia State University. Here she not only received an honors degree, but also became the first black university student after the decision of the US Supreme Court on desegregation of educational institutions. So Katherine would have gone down in history anyway. Even if an affair with NASA had not happened in her life. Catherine had to work in different places, slowly gaining the necessary experience. And once he was very useful to her.
Computers in skirts
In the late 1930s, Catherine could not even imagine that she would someday be involved in space flights. After all, America of those years was a country where all kinds of prejudices flourished. What can we say about the rights of black women!
In 1939, Catherine married James Goble, gave birth to three girls. She worked as a math teacher. In 1953, the family moved to Newport News. Around this time, she got a job at NASA - then the organization was the "National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics."
Her position was called “computer” (that is, “calculator”). At first, her main task was to decrypt the data of the aircraft black boxes. However, Catherine quickly grew up - despite the fact that women were not accepted into the team of "serious" specialists, colleagues increasingly needed her opinion and impeccable calculations.
Although, as Katherine recalled, while she did not have the right to visit the toilet on an equal basis with others. She should have fled to the other wing of the building, where the black toilet was located. She was also initially banned from attending the engineering meeting. And this is in NASA, where the country's intellectual elite was gathered! You can imagine what customs reigned in simpler places!
And everything would be fine if not for the sudden illness of her husband - in 1956, James was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He died soon after, and Catherine was left alone with three children.
Despite this, Catherine did not quit her job. As a result, she was offered a permanent contract. She was very good at counting. And with descriptive geometry, too, everything was in order.
To the credit of the Americans from the space department, they ignored racist prejudices and not only recruited blacks to work, but also believed that black ladies did better at this job - they were more attentive, diligent, and accurate in details. So, in the department of Catherine worked several more "women-computers", which are now called genius. However, there were some funny things: once one of the employees mistook Katherine for a cleaning lady and thrust a trash can into her hands - the techies are used to the fact that blacks work only in the most low-profile positions!
So Johnson and his friends had to work hard to refute such prejudices.
From the moon to mars
For all her phenomenal busyness and workload, Catherine was not a "crust", absorbed only in work. She had time to relax and even sing in the church choir - for 50 years, she never missed a rehearsal. And in 1959, Katherine remarried: the veteran of the Korean War, Junior Lieutenant James Johnson, became the new chosen one.
Her reputation as a specialist, a genius of space calculations, with which no calculator can be compared, grew every day. And it was she who, in 1961, was entrusted with calculating the trajectory of the first American in space, Alan Shepard. Catherine was told where Shepard was to land on Earth, and she was able to determine where the mission should begin. Such calculations were Johnson's forte.
She also rechecked by hand already computer calculations before the flight of John Glenn and the calculations necessary for the first man to land on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
In 1970, Johnson worked on the Apollo 13 lunar mission, which nearly ended in tragedy. It was her work on backup procedures that helped find a safe route for the crew to return to Earth. A single star observing system was created that allowed astronauts to pinpoint their location. In a 2010 interview, Johnson recalled: “Everyone was worried about how they got there. We were concerned about the return."
In total, she worked at NASA for 33 years, becoming the author of 26 scientific papers. For many years, her name, like the names of other women who stood at the origins of the American space program, were unknown to the general public. And only in recent years, Margot Lee Shetterly wrote the book "Hidden Figures" about her and her friends. The film of the same name was also shot.
In 2015, Catherine Johnson, 97 years old, was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of America's highest awards for civilians.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century, №13 Dmitry Kupriyanov