NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine shared the news of her passing. "She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten," Bridenstine wrote. 

As a "human computer," Johnson famously double-checked the numbers for astronaut John Glenn's 1962 orbital mission. Glenn himself asked for Johnson to re-run the computer calculations prior to his launch. This came at a pivotal moment in the space race between the US and the Soviet Union. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.