![]() ![]() This led to a 25-year career focused on sonic boom minimization. However, that is not all she contributed. Impressed by her skills, her supervisor transferred her to the engineering section, where she was one of few female aerospace engineers at NASA Langley during that time.”ĭarden’s first assignment was to write a computer program that modeled a sonic boom. (She went on to earn a PhD in engineering from George Washington University in 1983.)Īccording to NASA, “After wading through daily calculations for eight years, Darden approached her supervisor to ask why men, with the same educational background as her (a master of science in applied mathematics), were being hired as engineers. She began her career at NASA in 1967 when she was hired as a “human computer” at the Langley Research Center. Prior to coming to NASA, Darden had earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Hampton University in 1962 and a master’s of science from Virginia State College in 1967. She was one of the leading NASA researchers in the sonic boom and its relation to supersonic and hypersonic aircraft. Learn about her journey in this My Path video.Ĭhristine Darden was an aeronautical engineer at the NASA Langley Research Center. Christine DardenĬhristine Darden is a mathematician featured in the book Hidden Figures. ![]() Join us to discover the stories of two other women whose work and achievement, like Johnson’s, were hidden and untold for years-but who also played a key role in the success of the space program in the United States. Katherine went where her skills were needed-even if she wasn’t invited,” Stofan concluded. ![]() “Katherine, and countless unsung heroes just like her, carried the nation’s space program forward, despite pervasive opposition at all levels of society. Ellen Stofan, “Even when NASA turned to electronic computers to tabulate trajectories, John Glenn now famously asked that Katherine personally recheck the calculations on his flight before climbing aboard Friendship 7.” Johnson was born in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, in 1918. She was fascinated with numbers as a young person and highly intelligent-a freshman in high school by the time she was 10 years old, high school graduate at 14, and college graduate at 18. She graduated with honors from West Virginia State University in 1937 with degrees in mathematics and French. Her achievement with numbers continued, and she became one of the first African American graduate students at the University of West Virginia.Īfter working as a teacher, she went to work for the NACA (the forerunner of NASA), calculating results from the wind tunnel at Langley Research Center. She would go on to work for NASA. “Katherine excelled as a ‘human computer,’ and the flights of the first Americans in space relied on her calculations,” explained Dr. A longtime NASA mathematician and "Hidden Figure," Johnson calculated trajectories for many major spaceflights. Katherine Johnson sits at her desk with a globe, or "Celestial Training Device. ![]()
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