Katherine Johnson, black NASA mathematician, dies at 101

?NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson was an unsung hero of space exploration until long after her retirement. [NASA/AFP / Handout]

Katherine Johnson, a ground-breaking black NASA mathematician whose life was portrayed in the movie "Hidden Figures," died on Monday aged 101, the space agency said.

Johnson's calculations helped put the first man on the Moon in 1969, but she was little known until the Oscar-nominated 2016 movie that told the stories of three black women who worked at NASA.