
Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician, to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom - ColinWright
http://www.wvgazettemail.com/article/20151116/GZ01/151119605/1101
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Amorymeltzer
>"Early on, when they said they wanted the capsule to come down at a certain
place, they were trying to compute when it should start. I said, 'Let me do
it. You tell me when you want it and where you want it to land, and I'll do it
backwards and tell you when to take off.' That was my forte."

>By 1962, when John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, NASA
was relying more on computers.

>"You could do much more, much faster on computer," Johnson said. "But when
they went to computers, they called over and said, 'tell her to check and see
if the computer trajectory they had calculated was correct.' So I checked it
and it was correct."

This lady is fantastic and it's about time she gets this - absolutely
deserved.

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benchess
What an amazing story. Great to hear of people like Katherine!

