February 20th marks the anniversary of a pivotal moment in American history: John Glenn’s orbit of the Earth in the Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft. While Glenn rightfully became a national icon as the first American to achieve this feat, his mission’s renewed prominence is largely thanks to the acclaimed movie Hidden Figures. This film, adapted from Margot Lee Shetterly’s book, shines a light on a group of previously unknown African American women who were crucial to the success of NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
Long before digital computers, human computers – often women – were the backbone of complex calculations in science and engineering. At NACA’s Langley Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia, and similar institutions, white women performed these roles, diligently working with mechanical desk calculators to support male aerodynamicists. However, World War II created a labor shortage, compelling Langley to expand its talent pool to include Black women. This led to the establishment of the segregated West Computing group, comprised of highly educated Black women with mathematics degrees, who had previously been limited to poorly paid teaching positions in the racially segregated South.
Katherine Johnson, a brilliant mathematician, pictured at NASA in 1966.
Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, who joined West Computing in 1953, was one such extraordinary woman. Graduating as one of the first African American students at West Virginia University, Johnson’s path might have led to a doctorate were it not for societal limitations and family responsibilities. By 1958, Langley became part of the newly formed NASA, and the epicenter of Project Mercury, America’s first human spaceflight endeavor. Johnson’s exceptional skills quickly elevated her to performing trajectory computations for the Mercury capsule’s orbital path and its perilous reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. A critical calculation was pinpointing the precise location to fire retrorockets, ensuring a safe landing within the ocean recovery zone. Her invaluable contributions led to Johnson becoming the first African American woman in her division to be credited as an author on a NASA technical report.
As the space age dawned, mainframe computers were introduced at Langley, signaling a shift towards automation. Yet, in the fall of 1961, as NASA prepared for John Glenn’s groundbreaking orbital mission aboard the Atlas rocket, old habits and trust in human intellect persisted. Glenn, famously, requested that “the girl” – Katherine Johnson – personally re-verify the computer-generated reentry calculations using the familiar desktop mechanical calculators. He was reportedly uneasy entrusting his life entirely to the nascent IBM mainframe. Johnson meticulously undertook this time-consuming task, spending weeks confirming the computer’s figures. Her crucial role in validating the trajectory for Glenn’s mission became a point of pride and was celebrated within the African American community after the successful flight.
While Hidden Figures brought this vital history to a global audience, the movie does take dramatic liberties. The film condenses years of the Mercury program into a few months in 1961 and invents scenarios to heighten the drama. For example, it inaccurately suggests Johnson was the first to realize the Redstone rocket’s inadequacy for orbital flights, a fact well-established among NASA engineers from the outset. The movie also depicts Glenn urgently requesting Johnson’s calculations from the launch pad, and unrealistically relocates Mercury Control to Langley for dramatic effect. Furthermore, while Glenn’s actual mission was planned for three orbits, the movie incorrectly implies it was shortened from seven due to a potential heat shield issue. In reality, the three-orbit plan was always the intended duration, and while a warning light did cause concern, the situation was not publicly conveyed as dramatically as depicted in the film. These historical deviations, while numerous, serve the purpose of cinematic storytelling and contribute to an undeniably inspiring and well-made film.
Regardless of these dramatizations, Hidden Figures and its source material have profoundly impacted how we perceive the space program’s history. Even before the movie’s release, Katherine Johnson’s contributions were being recognized. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The stories of Johnson and her West Computing colleagues are reshaping the narrative of American space exploration, ensuring that the contributions of these remarkable women are no longer hidden but celebrated as an integral part of our shared history.
Michael J. Neufeld, a senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum, who has Friendship 7 in his collection, recalls watching Glenn’s launch and landing as a child.
