Two of history’s and NASA’s greatest minds, Katherine Johnson was one of the first African Americans to work for NASA, and Mae Jemison is the first African American woman to go into space.
One of the most famous names in NASA history, Katherine Johnson was one of the first Black women to work for the administration. It wasn’t until 1953 that Johnson began working at the all-Black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA’s) Langley laboratory. The 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik that marked a major shift in Johnson’s career. She played a major role in America’s first human spaceflight, Alan Shepard’s May 1961 mission Freedom 7. Some of her most notable projects include Project Apollo, the Space Shuttle and the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS, later renamed Landsat) and the 26 research reports she helped author and coauthor. Then in 2015 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor.
Another one of NASA’s best and brightest is Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go into space.
A doctor, engineer and NASA astronaut, Jemison was selected for the astronaut program in June of 1987. Jemison made On September 12, 1992 when she became the first African American woman to go into space on the space shuttle Endeavor. Some of her greatest achievements include the launch support activities at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and her work with Shuttle computer software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL). She is the author of several books and even appeared on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
These women overcame innumerable obstacles to achieve greatness, and they are sure to go down in history as two of NASA’s greatest minds.
