Kathy saved the space ship

Katherine Johnson Apollo 13

Kathy was good in Maths. She counted the steps in the staircase. She counted the dishes she washed. She counted everything she saw. But her wish was to count the stars in the sky.  Kathy even dreamt about the big, wide universe. She thought how many steps it would take to touch the sky.

Kathy’s mom was a teacher and her father was a wood cutter and a farmer. She had an elder brother Charles and three more siblings.

Kathy was a star in her class. The school principal, teachers and parents were very proud to have her. The school management saw her brilliance and gave her a promotion to skip three grades in the school. Like hare and tortoise, she started slow but overtook her elder brothers in studies. When she was 10, she was into high school. An obstacle was waiting for her. The high school in her town didn’t admit her because she was an African.

Kathy’s father worked and earned more money and made her join in another high school for Africans. She excelled in her studies – Maths, French and English. Her teachers helped her to learn more in all the subjects. She was trained to become a mathematician – an expert in calculating the number patterns of the universe.

In those days, women should choose to be either a teacher or a nurse but not a mathematician. Kathy picked up a teaching job. She did her job well.

NACA, the olden term for NASA appointed many women as mathematicians but when Kathy tried for that job, the openings were closed. Without losing her hope, she waited patiently for a year for the same job. She got placed in the very next year.

After a few years, NACA became NASA with some advanced space programs. Kathy worked for NASA. She was like a human calculator calculating all the numbers by mind and hands. All the numerical estimation of launching a spaceship and its come back to Earth were calculated by mathematicians- women team. Kathy was the best among them.

Launching a rocket looks like throwing a ball up. When the force decreases the ball comes down in the curvy arc pattern and falls on the ground. Same logic works for rocket ships.

Kathy noted down the launched force of the rocket in numbers and calculated with its flying speed and found out where it would land. She marked it on the graph and it looked like a wide mountain.

NASA appreciated Kathy for her accuracy in rocket science and promoted her to work in a new project that will send an astronaut into space. The star astronaut, John Glenn said “I need Kathy’s approval before flying the spacecraft circling the Earth thrice”. Kathy checked the numbers and approved the project. The spacecraft, Friendship 7 rounded Earth three times and landed back safely.

NASA again pulled Kathy into another project named APOLLO, a visit to moon. She was asked to calculate the flight path to Moon. She did her job well. The success of Apollo 11 and 12 were celebrated around the world. When Apollo 13 was launched, the spacecraft was exploded in the space. There were three astronauts in the spaceship doesn’t know what to do next.

NASA researchers telephoned Kathy and asked for her help on reworking the new flight path after the explosion.

Kathy started working on a new plan. She wanted to find how much time will it take for the astronauts to come back to Earth. After few hours she framed new plan. She called the head of the Scientists team and explained them “The spaceship must go around the moon and the moon’s gravity will pull the spaceship back to Earth. Moon will work like a sling and spaceship will act like the pebble”.

The crew of astronauts did exactly just as Kathy said. They turn on and off the spaceship’s fuel at calculated intervals.

Kathy waited to hear the status of APOLLO 13. She got the wonderful news that the astronauts were back on the track and landed safely on Earth.

Kathy no longer dreamt about the number of steps it would take reach the universe, because she was the Star in the universe – Katherine Johnson.

A satellite was named Katherine/Nusat 15 was launched on November 6, 2020 in her honor.

She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

A school in California was named Katherine Johnson Middle school. Many other buildings and halls were named after her.

Even Katherine’s look alike Barbie doll wearing a NASA ID badge was manufactured in the year 2018.

Katherine Johnson– An American Hero