She navigated segregation to become an esteemed mathematician — and today, her work helps billions of people navigate the world.
Gladys West, whose pioneering career contributed key elements to what became the GPS satellite system and was later acknowledged as a "hidden figure" of GPS, died Saturday at age 95.
West "passed peacefully alongside her family and friends and is now in heaven with her loved ones," her family said as they announced her death.
West is credited with astounding accomplishments in mathematics, playing pivotal roles in charting orbital trajectories and creating accurate mathematical models of the Earth's shape that would eventually be used by the GPS satellite orbit.
But, as West admitted to member station VPM in 2020, she did not really rely on the groundbreaking system she helped create.
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