Hundreds of people turned out May 5 to attend the naming ceremony for the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Chief among those in attendance was Johnson herself. Now 97, Johnson was once a “human computer” at NASA Langley. Among many other impressive feats, she famously calculated the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
During the ceremony, officials also presented Johnson with a Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy award. The Silver Snoopy goes to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to human spaceflight safety.
The retired mathematician was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2015. Her contributions and those of other NASA African-American human computers are also being chronicled in a movie, based on the book “Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly.
Johnson worked at NASA Langley from 1953 until she retired in 1986.
The Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility is the third building in NASA Langley’s 20-year revitalization plan. The 40,000-square-foot structure will provide a consolidated data center and high-density office space. It is slated to open in 2017.
For full coverage of the ceremony, see our feature on May 6.