Executive Order 8802 Research Paper

Many of the advancements in aeronautics throughout World War II and after the war in aerospace were, in part, due to the work of women. Much of the work during the war was production oriented, but there were also many women with degrees in mathematics who held positions during the war that led to major contributions in the fields of aeronautics and later in aerospace. These women were employed by the government in positions that allowed them to increase the ability of the U.S. to wage a modern math-dependent war through the air. It is through the possibilities afforded during World War II that many African American female mathematicians gained entry into disciplines such as aeronautics, space research, and computer technology. The common …show more content…
On June 25, 1941 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 to promote equal opportunities and prohibit employment discrimination in defense industries in the United States. I do hereby declare that it is the duty of employers and of labor organizations, in furtherance of said policy and of this order, to provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin. [1] This order helped to open up some of the jobs to minorities throughout the war. Private industries fought this more than government institutions. However, Executive Order 8802 was not a law and many States had segregation laws in place that made integration …show more content…
The paper described the trajectories for placing satellites into orbit and returning them to Earth, which earned her recognition as the first female author of the Flight Research Division. From the summary of their paper: Examples are presented of a satellite launched eastward and one launched westward, each passing over a selected position sometime after having completed three orbits…changes from the burnout azimuth angle and latitude are also analyzed.[3] Figure 1 show the equations used in the calculation of the azimuth angle. [3] Figure 2 shows the satellite position trace on the earth’s surface in the case of an eastward launch and Figure 3 gives the calculations for an eastward launch. [3] Katherine Johnson also worked on trajectories that helped Neil Armstrong and his crew land safely on the moon and return home in the same fashion. Katherine Johnson retired from NASA in 1986 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from Barack Obama in