{"id":56855,"date":"2018-08-27T21:50:30","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T21:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=56855"},"modified":"2018-08-27T21:50:30","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T21:50:30","slug":"katherine-johnson-who-hand-crunched-the-numbers-for-americas-first-manned-space-flight-is-100-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=56855","title":{"rendered":"Katherine Johnson, who hand-crunched the numbers for America’s first manned space flight, is 100 today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katherine Johnson, who hand-crunched the numbers for America’s first manned space flight, is 100 today<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Cable News Network<\/a> (CNN)
\n2018-08-26<\/p>\n

Saeed Ahmed<\/strong><\/a>, Senior Editor, Trends, CNN Digital<\/p>\n

Emanuella Grinberg<\/strong><\/a>, Digital news reporter<\/p>\n

\"Katherine<\/a>
\nKatherine Johnson<\/a> worked in the “Computer Pool<\/a>” at NASA.<\/small><\/p>\n

(CNN)\u2014Katherine Johnson<\/a>, the woman who hand-calculated the trajectory for America’s first trip to space<\/a>, turns 100 today.<\/p>\n

Before the arrival of electronic data processors, aka, computers in the 1960s, humans — mainly women<\/a> — comprised the workforce at NASA<\/a> known as the “Computer Pool<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Black women, especially, played a crucial role in the pool, providing mathematical data for NASA’s first successful space missions, including Alan Shepherd’s 1961 mission<\/a> and John Glenn’s pioneering orbital spaceflight<\/a>…<\/p>\n