One of NASA’s human ‘computers,’ Katherine G. Johnson performed the complex calculations that enabled humans to successfully achieve space flight. Born in 1918 in West Virginia, Katherine G. Johnson made the most of limited educational opportunities for African Americans, graduating from college at age 18. She began working in aeronautics as a “computer” in 1952, and after the formation of NASA, she performed the calculations that sent astronauts into orbit in the early 1960s and to the moon in 1969. Johnson was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, and saw her story brought to light through a book and a feature film the following year.