Free Republic

Pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose calculations played a major role in the development of the Space Shuttle program, died Monday at the age of 101, NASA confirmed. Johnson was part of NASA’s “Computer Pool” team in the 1960s, which was largely composed of black women who processed data by hand. They provided the calculations for several of the first successful manned space missions, including Alan Shepard’s in 1961 and John Glenn’s in 1962, when he became the first American to orbit the earth. Johnson also became the first woman to write a technical report in NASA’s flight research division...

A new film, Hidden Figures, tells the story of the maths wizards who Nasa relied on. When John Glenn was waiting to be fired into orbit aboard Friendship 7 in 1962, there was one person he trusted with the complex trajectory calculations required to bring him down safely from his orbital spaceflight: Katherine Johnson, an African-American mathematician who worked in Nasa’s segregated west area computers division. “Get the girl, check the numbers,” Glenn said before boarding the rocket. “If she says they’re good, I’m good to go.” Johnson was one of three female African-American mathematicians known as the “computers in...

Not since Sister Act has a film fronted by black women had quite the commercial impact of Hidden Figures, which has crashed through the $100 million barrier at the US box office and even scored a place on the Best Picture line-up. Underrate the star power of Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe at your peril; by the end of their film, you’ll certainly be doffing your hat to the women they’re playing, too. Hidden in the sense of historically obscured – their contributions to the space race neglected and marginalised – this trio of Nasa employees had...

Has anyone seen Hidden Figures? Is it appropriate for a young girl? I have a 12 year old girl who is interested in math, astronomy, and NASA. I thought the movie might motivate her.