Searching Beyond the Stars: Seven Women in Science Take On Space's Biggest Questions
LEADING THE RACE KATHERINE JOHNSON TAKES US INTO ORBIT 6
AN EYE FROM ABOVE It’s October 4 1957 Across the world people crane their heads upward searching for a faint light crossing the sky among the stars It’s not a comet or an asteroid it’s Sputnik the first artificial satellite to be launched into space Many people look on in fear as the beachball-sized satellite built by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics U S S R also known as the Soviet Union looks down on them The U S S R is considered a powerful enemy to the United States and Americans fear that this launch could usher in a new type of warfare Were the Soviets using Sputnik to monitor their every move Katherine Goble is one of the people silently tracking the steadily moving dot across the night sky But Katherine doesn’t feel afraid For her it is the dawn of a new age the Space Age 7
KATHERINE’S TIMELINE 1918 Born Katherine Coleman in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia USA 1939 Becomes one of the first African American students to enroll at West Virginia State 1960 Coauthors paper on calculations for getting a spacecraft into orbit 8
1962 Helps confirm calculations for the spaceflight for John Glenn the first American to orbit Earth 1961 Calculates suborbital path for Alan Shepard the first American astronaut in space 2015 Awarded the U S Presidential Medal of Freedom YOU NEED TO KNOW ARTIFICIAL SATELLITE A human-made object that orbits Earth PROJECT MERCURY The first U S human space program created on October 7 1958 and made up of seven astronauts APOLLO PROGRAM The U S program which ran from 1961 to 1975 that sent humans to the moon 9
