Katherine Johnson: African American Women In The Space Race

The Space Race was a noteworthy and vital competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, both fighting for dominance and the lead in spaceflight technology, spacecraft, and achievements such as putting the first human into space. In the end, the U.S. had a fierce victory. However, this did not come easy. The hard work and dedication of people at NASA were the reason for this success.

A commonly looked after group of influential people who contributed to The Space Race is none other than Katherine Johnson and the other women who worked alongside her. It was not easy for women working at NASA during the Space Race. Katherine Johnson and others in the field had to navigate through barriers and challenges stacked against them. These

In addition to that, Katherine and many other African American women in NASA, like herself, had to go through segregation and racism. "We needed to be assertive as women in those days--- assertive and aggressive --- and the degree to which we had to be that way deepened on where you were. I had to be," Katherine Johnson said in 1999, talking about her experience at NASA.“ (NASA) This shows that through these injustices, Katherine made her way around them and persevered for a common goal.

Katherine Johnson worked as a "human calculator" for many of NASA's space missions during the Space Race and beyond. With her smart mind, desktop mechanical calculating machine, and her drive and dedication, she could solve and calculate the most difficult of problems that computers were programmed to do. Before a space mission, John Glenn, an astronaut at NASA, asked engineers to “get the girl”, Katherine Johnson, and have her run the equations they put through a computer by hand. “If she says they’re good," he said. This shows that Katherine has earned the

These computers ran the orbital equations that would decide the outcome of the capsule's liftoff and splashdown. The astronauts on the mission didn't trust their lives with a computer, so Katherine Johnson spent almost two days calculating all the equations by hand, as well as the other two women's contributions. As NASA wrote, her perseverance during this mission led to a successful flight that, "marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space." Without Katherine Johnson's hard work and dedication during this mission, the flight could've had a very different outcome. Mary Jackson impacted the Space Race by analyzing data on aircraft flight experiments and her hard work in helping to send the first American into space. Dorothy Vaughan was also part of the SCOUT Launch Vehicle Program where she worked as a mathematician. This mission would send America's first satellites into space, a monumental event during the Space Race. All three of these dedicated and inspirational women played vital roles in the United States' victory in the Space Race and the success of overcoming barriers