As Johnson worked on math problems with the other female computers, she would ask questions. She didn't want to just do the work — she wanted to know the "hows" and the "whys," and then the "why nots." By asking questions, Johnson began to stand out.
Women were not allowed to attend meetings with the male engineers and scientists. Johnson wanted to go to these meetings to learn more about the projects, so she went. She became known for her training in geometry and began to work with teams made up of men. Eventually, she was recognized as a leader, and the men increasingly relied on her to have the answers they needed.
In 1958, NACA officially became NASA. Shortly thereafter, Johnson became part of the space team. She began calculating the flight path, or trajectory path, for the rocket to put the first American in space in 1961. That American was astronaut Alan Shepard. The engineers knew when and where they wanted Shepard's space capsule to land, but the tricky part was to calculate when and where the rocket would have to launch. Johnson figured it out!

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