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SPEAKER_03: Hello, I'm Liz Smith, the director of audio at Wonder Media Network. And today I'm excited to introduce
SPEAKER_09: one of our favorite episodes that's been featured on Encyclopedia Wamanica, NASA mathematician, Katherine Johnson. The movie Hidden Figures might also jog your memory of her accomplishments as the amazing Taraji P. Henson portrayed her in the film. Interesting fact though, in the movie, the movie is a little bit different. It's a little bit different than the movie that we saw in the movie. Interesting fact though, in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, math and computing were actually seen as quote unquote women's work because women were thought of as detail oriented and accurate, thus well suited for the job, which of course is in stark contrast to the age old stigma that boys are good at math and girls are good at English. While Katherine passed away in February of this year, she'll always be remembered for her perseverance and brilliance that paved the way for more women to enter and thrive in STEM fields today. This episode initially aired in September during the Steminists theme. Now here's the amazing Jenny Kaplan to tell you more about Katherine Johnson. Enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Today's Steminist is a pioneering mathematician who helped the US finally reach for the stars. Let's talk about Katherine Johnson. Katherine was born in 1918 in the small town of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It was apparent from a very early age that Katherine was special. She was brilliant when it came to the humanities and she had a true gift for numbers. By age 10, Katherine had started high school. In 1937, when she was just 19, Katherine graduated with highest honors from the historically black West Virginia State College. After graduating, Katherine took a teaching job in Virginia but just two years later, she was handpicked for a spot as one of the first three black students at the state's flagship school, West Virginia University. Katherine enrolled in graduate school there for math but left after a year to get married and start a family. Eventually, she returned to teaching. Then, in 1952, one of Katherine's relatives told her about an exciting new opportunity. The all-black West Area Computing Section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was hiring for the Langley Laboratory. The West Area Computing Unit was a group of African American women who worked on complex manual math computations for the program's engineers. It was tough and vital work. The West Computers, as the women were known, analyzed test data and performed math computations for the early space program. They were key to its success. When Katherine started working at NACA, she was quickly noticed for her sharp mind and the quality of her work. Katherine still had to use separate bathrooms and dining facilities from her colleagues because NACA was segregated until 1958 when it was incorporated into the new NASA where segregation was banned. There, she worked for the Space Task Group which was charged with figuring out space travel. In 1960, Katherine co-authored a paper with one of the group's engineers about calculations for getting a spacecraft into orbit. It was the first time a woman in her group received authorship credit on a research report and it was just the first of 26 published papers Katherine authored. In 1961, Katherine began working on NASA's hyper-ambitious Mercury program. NASA was looking to catch up with the Russians and put the first manned U.S. crafts into space. Katherine did the trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's May 1961 mission Freedom 7, America's first human space flight.
SPEAKER_03: This is Walter Cronkite at CBS TV News, Project Mercury headquarters on Cape Canaveral. The Mercury capsule is ready. Commander Alan Shepard, our astronaut is ready. The weather is good and it is 10 minutes to launch time.
SPEAKER_01: The next year, in 1962, Katherine was called upon to do the work that she would become best known for. As NASA prepared for John Glenn's orbital mission of the Earth, it had to construct a worldwide communications network, linking various tracking stations located around the world to supercomputers located in D.C., Cape Canaveral and Bermuda. Though the computers have been programmed with the necessary equations for the entire mission, the astronauts were concerned about the new technology, which was prone to error, and didn't trust the computers to do the calculations. Glenn famously asked the engineers to change the pre-flight checklist to get the girl.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get the girl to check the numbers.
SPEAKER_02: But when he got ready to go, he said, call her.
SPEAKER_01: To run the exact same equations that had been programmed into the computers by hand, Glenn supposedly said.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if she says they're good, I'm ready to go.
SPEAKER_02: And if she says the computer's right, I'll take it.
SPEAKER_01: If she says they're good, then I'm ready to go.
SPEAKER_02: Three, two, one, zero, ignition, liftoff.
SPEAKER_15: History perhaps being risen at this moment here at Cape Canaveral for a planned space flight that will take Colonel John Glenn around the world in 90 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Katherine continued her career at NASA until she retired in 1986 after 33 years at Langley. About her time at NASA, Katherine said, I loved going to work every single day. In 2015, at the age of 97, Katherine added yet another achievement to her long list of accomplishments. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.
SPEAKER_12: In her 33 years at NASA, Katherine was a pioneer who broke the barriers of race and gender, showing generations of young people that everyone can excel in math and science and reach for the stars.
SPEAKER_01: In 2016, NASA named a research facility in her honor, and later that year, a book was released about her life and the lives of her colleagues. It was turned into an Oscar-nominated movie called Hidden Figures. Katherine's incredible life continues to move and motivate future feminists today.
SPEAKER_02: You lose your curiosity, then you stop learning.
SPEAKER_01: Tune in tomorrow for the story of another stellar feminist, special thanks to my favorite sister and co-creator, Liz Kaplan. Talk to you tomorrow. Father's Day is just around the corner, and we're so excited to share that we're offering custom episodes of Encyclopedia Womanica about the amazing dads in your life. Visit the link in our episode notes or head to wondermedianetwork.com slash father's day to purchase a custom episode all about your dad.
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