'Trailblazer,' 'human calculator,' 'hidden figure': Tributes to Katherine Johnson, who helped put men on the moon, pour in following her death

Carlos Barria/Reuters

• Katherine Johnson, a pioneering black mathematician who helped NASA launch men to the moon, died Monday at 101.
• Johnson was portrayed in the 2017 movie "Hidden Figures."
• Celebrities, scientists, and politicians have honored her legacy with kind words and personal stories about Johnson's impact.
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Scientists, celebrities, and politicians around the world are paying tribute to NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who died at the age of 101 on Monday. 

Johnson was hired as a "human computer" at NASA's predecessor agency, NACA, in 1953. By hand, she calculated rocket trajectories for NASA's early missions and checked the math for the launches that sent the first American into orbit and put the first men on the moon.

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• Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician who helped put a man on the moon, died at 101. Here's a look back at the hidden figure's remarkable life.
• NASA's InSight lander is revealing Mars to be far more shaky than we thought. It picked up about 450 quakes and 10,000 ground-bending whirlwinds.

SEE ALSO: Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician who helped put a man on the moon, died at 101. Here's a look back at the hidden figure's remarkable life.

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