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"If she says they're good, then I am ready to go."

Before his 1962 orbital flight, John Glenn was wary of trusting his life to a machine's trajectory calculations and asked that Katherine Johnson check them. #BHM

More on mathematician Katherine Johnson: https://go.nasa.gov/3Ef1sbX
#NASAhistory
in reply to NASA

Wait, I thought it was the re-entry point needing calculations, so the cabin wouldn't bounce off the atmosphere, or dig in to the atmosphere too fast and burn up.

And the crew wanted Kaherine Johnson to do it, because they trusted her mind.
in reply to NASA

Ooh, I used to have a Monroe calculator just like the one KJ is using! It worked and everything. I forget where I got it; I think someone was tossing it.

It was among the possessions I had which somehow didn't make it into storage when my parents moved out. -.-
in reply to NASA

My biggest disappointment from CWRU Math Dept is I didn't know about KJ. I learnt abt Garrett Morgan (added am er light to traffic lights) & Benjamin Banneker (DC land surveyor). If I were active, I would run a seminar course on her work. #BHM
#bhm
in reply to NASA

When “computer” was a job title, not a machine 👇

https://social.beachcom.org/@nasa/109892242741564609
in reply to NASA

You can also watch the movie "Hidden Figures".

Although dramatized for mass movie consumption, still a worthwhile watch.
in reply to NASA

in a modern context this is an interesting parable about the implicit irresponsibility of machines - John Glenn wouldn't trust his life to something that wouldn't understand what life meant, so he insisted on a human being involved.

It's an example we'd do well to follow as capital tries to push unblameable and inculpable systems into every facet of life.
in reply to NASA

FYI; "Half" of NASA's benefit is missing..: The Oscillate-Handed Multi-Helical Truss-Form avails us with much better & and much more social 'air-power.'

Roller-skates, however, will be best applied [mostly] on regolith-free Earth.

'Truth.
in reply to NASA

if you can read this, and not lament how many brillian insights over centuries were missed because of made up race and gender roles, there's something wrong with you.

https://social.beachcom.org/@nasa/109892242741564609
in reply to NASA

Where can I find a list of NASA math's ? Is there anyone else you're proud off ? A search for NASA math's in Google results in Katherine Jonson for the first 5 pages. I did find a document on your site where she was listed as coauthor with Skopinski, T. H. who wrote several books and articles
in reply to NASA

https://astrodon.social/@Com_cl/109893891184892246

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