Katherine Johnson, the mathematician who contributed hugely to the work of the US space agency NASA, has died at the age of 101. In the 1950s she was one of a group of women known as the West Area Computers, all African-American female mathematicians performing vital work for the growing aeronautics industry, and the inspiration for the 2016 film Hidden Figures.
Katherine then went on to work at NASA, most famously providing the trajectory calculations for Apollo 11 to land on the Moon in 1969. Her legacy is significant, not just for the space industry, but also as a symbol of the struggle of African-American women at a time of cultural apartheid.