Question 1

True or false: Her calculations helped ensure the Apollo 11 lunar module could safely rendezvous with the command module.

Accepted Answer

True. Johnson worked on the rendezvous and trajectory equations for the Apollo Lunar Module, critical for the moon landing's success and safe return.

Question 2

True or false: Katherine Johnson was a child prodigy who started high school at age 10 and college at 15.

Accepted Answer

True. She was gifted in math, entered high school at 10, and enrolled at West Virginia State College at 15, graduating with honors at 18.

Question 3

True or false: Katherine Johnson calculated the flight path for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.

Accepted Answer

True. She verified the trajectory for Shepard's 1961 Mercury-Redstone 3 mission, making her a key part of NASA's early human spaceflight success.

Question 4

True or false: She was a member of the first group of Black female mathematicians hired by NASA's predecessor, NACA.

Accepted Answer

True. In 1953, NACA hired a small group of Black women as 'human computers' at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, and Johnson joined them.

Question 5

True or false: John Glenn specifically asked for Katherine Johnson to recheck the computer's calculations before his orbital flight.

Accepted Answer

True. Glenn trusted her manual calculations over the new IBM computers and said, 'Get the girl to check the numbers' before his 1962 Friendship 7 mission.

Question 6

True or false: Katherine Johnson retired from NASA in 1986, but continued to advise the agency on Apollo missions until the 1990s.

Accepted Answer

False. She retired in 1986 after 33 years and did not advise on Apollo missions afterward; Apollo ended in 1972. Her Apollo work was during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Question 7

True or false: Katherine Johnson worked at NASA entirely in secret, and her role was unknown until the 2016 film 'Hidden Figures.'

Accepted Answer

False. She was recognized during her lifetime, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and NASA's Langley Research Center naming a building after her in 2017.

Question 8

True or false: She was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics.

Accepted Answer

False. Katherine Johnson earned a BS in mathematics and French in 1937. The first African American woman to earn a PhD in math was Evelyn Boyd Granville in 1949.

Katherine Johnson Trivia Questions