Katherine Johnson is among the first three historical figures to be honored in Barbie’s “Inspiring Women” doll series.
In our effort to inspire the next generation of Katherine Johnson’s, we want to donate Katherine Johnson Barbie Dolls to as many central Florida area girls as possible. We need your help!
We are targeting girls who are:
- Central Florida residents
- Between the ages 6-11 years old
- Good students
- Interested in S.T.E.M.
WHO IS KATHERINE JOHNSON?
She was a NASA mathematician, her and other African American working for NASA are were called “human computers”. Their experiences were depicted in the 2016 movie “Hidden Figures,” . Katherine Johnson is among the first three historical figures to be honored in Barbie’s “Inspiring Women” doll series.
Johnson, now 99, began work at what would become NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in 1953, when she joined a pool of African-American women whose role it was to be the computers for NACA — the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics — the predecessor agency to NASA. Johnson and her colleagues performed the mathematical equations and calculations needed by the engineers to advance their aeronautical work.
Eight years later, in support of the United States’ early human spaceflight program, Johnson calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly in space on May 5, 1961. Even after NASA began using electronic computers, John Glenn requested that Johnson re-check the machine calculations before he launched to become first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962.
