NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who was the real-life subject of Hidden Figures and helped Apollo 11 land on the moon, has died aged 101 NASA confirmed Katherine Johnson's death in a tweet on Monday morning Johnson was one of three black women who helped America dominate aeronautics, space research, and computer technology during World War II Her story inspired the 2016 Oscar-nominated film 'Hidden Figures'

RIP : NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who was the real-life subject of Hidden Figures and helped Apollo 11 land on the moon, has died aged 101

NASA confirmed Katherine Johnson's death in a tweet on Monday morning

Johnson was one of three black women who helped America dominate aeronautics, space research, and computer technology during World War II

Her story inspired the 2016 Oscar-nominated film 'Hidden Figures' Katherine Johnson, the pioneering NASA mathematician whose manual calculations allowed the first American astronaut to land on the moon in 1969 and inspired the film Hidden Figures, has died aged 101.

NASA confirmed Johnson's passing in a tweet on Monday morning. 'Today, we celebrate her 101 years of life and honor her legacy of excellence that broke down racial and social barriers,' the tweet read.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine praised Johnson as 'an American hero' whose 'pioneering legacy will never be forgotten'.She was hired by NASA in 1953 and joined Project Mercury, the nation's first human space program, a few years later as one of the so-called 'computers' who calculated rocket trajectories and earth orbits by hand.

'Our office computed all the (rocket) trajectories,' Johnson told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 2012.

'You tell me when and where you want it to come down, and I will tell you where and when and how to launch it."

In 1961, Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 Mission, the first to carry an American into space.

In 1962, she manually verified calculations by a nascent NASA computer for astronaut John Glenn's groundbreaking orbital mission as the US beat the Soviet Union (USSR) in the Space Race.