Ars Technica:

Katherine Johnson, a trailblazing mathematician best known for her contributions to NASA’s human spaceflight program and who gained fame later in life due to the movie Hidden Figures, died Monday. She was 101 years old.

Most notably, in 1962, she performed the critical calculations that put John Glenn into a safe orbit during the first orbital mission of a US astronaut. NASA engineers had run the calculations on electric computers, but when someone was needed to validate the calculations, Glenn and the rest of the space agency turned to Johnson. “If she says they’re good,” Johnson recalled the astronaut saying, “then I’m ready to go.”

Later, Johnson also assisted in the calculations that ensured a safe rendezvous between the Apollo Lunar Lander and Command Module in orbit around the Moon.

If it hadn’t been for the movie “Hidden Figures“, Johnson and the work of the other incredible Black women at NASA might have gone unnoticed.