Courage is a rare quality that drives individuals to take risks, make sacrifices, and stand up for what they believe in, even when the odds are against them. Throughout history, we have witnessed numerous examples of courageous individuals who have pushed beyond their limits to achieve greatness. One person is Katherine Johnson, an African American mathematician who worked for NASA. Katherine Johnson is a courageous person because she worked for an international company during the time of segregation, and she also had to do calculations which if done wrong could have led to death. Her work as a mathematician was instrumental in launching America's first successful space mission, and she shattered the racial and gender barriers that existed …show more content…
Johnson played a key role in calculating trajectories for some of NASA's most important missions, including the first human spaceflight by an American (Alan Shepard) and the first human orbit of Earth by an American (John Glenn) (Just,3). “[Her] calculations that helped synch Project Apollo’s Lunar Module with the lunar-orbiting Command and Service Module(loff,5).” This was courageous because her calculations were essential to the success of these missions, and she often had to work under extreme pressure and tight deadlines. Katherine worked really hard on the calculations even though she knew that they might fail, and she realized that if her calculations were even one number off she would be responsible for the death of many astronauts. Katherine also calculated the trajectory of Apollo 11 getting the U.S the win in the space race against the Soviet Union(Awis,1) This was important as the Americans and Soviets competed to prove their technological and intellectual superiority by becoming the first nation to put a human into space, and the U.S won the race(Greenwich,22). Katherine Johnson was so courageous in this situation, because she most likely knew that if the trajectory was wrong she would get blamed for losing the lives of astronauts. Overall Katherine Jonson is a person of extraordinary …show more content…
When Katherine Johnson began her 33-year career in 1953, Langley Research Center was racially segregate (Service,5). For her first two weeks, Johnson worked in the all-African American West Area Computing section. She was quickly reassigned to the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division (Service,5). This is really courageous from Katherine’s side, because she was separated from her white male workers making her job much harder, because communication was a bit more difficult. Lastly, she did quit the job even though it became harder for her she continued and persisted through the hard times, and helped Nasa on many missions. Katherine Johnson faced numerous challenges as a woman of color in the early days of NASA's space program. For example, she had to fight to attend meetings and have her voice heard, and she continued to push for recognition and opportunities to contribute to the space program.The courage demonstrated by Katherine Jhonson is amazing, because firstly she didn’t have the privilege to attend meetings without going through a difficult time. Lastly She still helped Nasa accomplish their goals. The amount of courage shown by Katherine even though she had realized that all these difficulties might result in wrong calculations. In conclusion Katherine Johnson is a really courageous person because she persisted even though she knew she could have the