She undertook a graduate maths programme but left at the end of her first year to start a family with her first husband James Goble.
In 1952 she decided to move with her family to Newport News, Virginia, to work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA) Langley laboratory.
NACA would eventually form the basis of NASA, setting Mrs Johnson on a career path towards the Moon.
In 1956, her husband died of cancer and a year later, 1957, the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, Sputnik.
The Soviet milestone pushed NACA towards becoming the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
At NASA, Mrs Johnson would go on to crunch the numbers for America’s first manned spaceflight.
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space aboard the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7.