# @nasaartemis on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BPXbjpDDkcO
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/15346006-nasaartemis-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/8bae7b8cda.jpg
- **Posted:** 2017-01-17T12:50:29.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA Artemis (@nasaartemis) — https://gondola.cc/nasaartemis

## Caption

When you hear the phrases “astronauts” and “NASA”, what pops into your mind? Sending a monkey into outer space? Dreaming as a child of rocketing into the stars? Famous figures like Neil Armstrong? A new film, “Hidden Figures,” will paint another picture in your brain: the black women who played important roles in NASA.

Premiering today, January 13, 2017, the movie shares the true story of three African American women who, while living the 1960’s Jim Crow South, earned invaluable positions at NASA’s space program. The leading ladies of the film, Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe, respectively play Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. For all of you book lovers, the film is based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly.

The film’s star? Katherine Johnson, Henson’s character, who deserves the title of “human computer” thanks to her skillful calculation of rocket trajectories in NASA’s Apollo space missions to the moon. If you love hearing about women kicking butt in male-dominated fields, you’ll love Johnson’s story. Johnson, now 97, graduated high school at age 14 and majored in math and French at West Virginia State College. The young woman was regarded as such a math prodigy that her professor added new math courses just for her. (And you thought just surviving Calculus was impressive!) By age 18, Johnson graduated summa cum laude.

During her time with NASA, Johnson worked as an aeronautical engineer for the majority of her career and performed vital calculations. In 1962, when NASA first used electronic computers to send John Glenn around the Earth, officials asked Johnson to check that the computer’s numbers were correct. During the Apollo 13 mission, Johnson’s calculations for backup procedures allowed the space team to safely return to Earth.

Credit: Katharine Mound/Entity Magazine #hiddenfigures #nasa #astronauts #math #prodigy #women #diversity #computers #apollo #johnglenn #apollo13 #space #explore #empoweringwomen #famous #neilarmstrong #cool

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## Tags

nasa, cool, space, prodigy, famous, apollo, neilarmstrong, computers, apollo13, women, astronauts, johnglenn, math, explore, empoweringwomen, hiddenfigures, diversity

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