Reaching For the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson

When Katherine Coleman was four-years-old she had a mission: to help her older brother Charlie with his math. Six-year-old Charlie was struggling to understand numbers, so Katherine decided to sit with him in class and help him! Charlie attended Mary McLeod Bethune Grade School where the Colored students of White Sulphur Springs were sent. His teacher, Mrs. Rosa Leftwich quickly realized that Katherine was indeed helping Charlie. Mrs. Leftwich eventually started a kindergarten class which Katherine attended and after that began school in the fall in second grade, a year ahead of Charlie. Katherine would eventually skip fifth grade. Her siblings, Horace and Margaret remained ahead of her in school. 

Before Katherine's family lived in White Sulphur Springs, her father owned a very large farm and log farmhouse in Oakhurst, which was located close by.  Their farm was called Dutch Run. Katherine's father had only a sixth-grade education but he was an industrious man. Katherine believes that a white man must have purchased the land their house in White Sulphur Springs was built on, as Colored people could  not buy land at that time. Education was very important to Katherine's father, which was why he moved the family into town.

In 1926, the Coleman family moved to Institute, West Virginia so the children could attend the West Virginia Colored Institute. When Katherine's father was unable to find employment he was forced to move back to White Sulphur Springs where he would live apart from his family for the next eight years, until all four Coleman children had graduated college. His family would visit during summers and holidays. 

Katherine entered high school at age ten and did well, often acing courses. During the 1920's Katherine and her siblings all worked at the Greenbrier Hotel, built at the local thermal springs. The hotel catered to wealthy white clients, although some amenities were available to the Colored population later in the evening. Horace, Charlie and Mr. Coleman worked as bellmen, while Margaret and Katherine worked in the valet shop, unpacking guest's trunks and pressing their clothes.

In 1932, Katherine graduated from high school and entered college. Because she had the opportunity to practice her French with the chef at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, Katherine thought she might like to major in French. However, Dr. William W. Schieffelin Claytor, head of the mathematics department urged her to reconsider. Katherine decided to major in both French and math. He also encouraged Katherine to become a research mathematician, and to that end he developed classes just for her, including a class about the geometry of outer space.

Katherine graduated from the Institute which was now called West Virginia State College, in 1937 with degrees in mathematics and French, summa cum laude. She graduated ahead of her brothers, Horace and Charlie, both of whom she thought were "slow learners". They were most definitely not!

Katherine then went on to teach math and music at Carnegie Elementary School in Marion, Virginia. Public schools at this time were racially segregated. "White Virginians thought that if Colored people became educated, they would challenge the existing social order, which was rooted in White supremacy - the belief that White people were genetically superior to non-White people, including Colored people." Marion, Virginia was predominantly white and Katherine knew that "the threat of violence was never far off." It was in Marion that Katherine met Jimmie Gobles, a tall graduate from Lincoln University in Missouri.  Katherine and Jimmie were married November 9, 1939.

Very soon after, during the summer of  1940, Katherine moved to Morgantown where she would begin graduate school at West Virginia University. Katherine was one of three Colored students chosen to integrate the school. However, Katherine didn't return to West Virginia University in the fall but instead returned to teaching with Jimmie at Carnegie Elementary. 

In December 1940, Katherine had the first of three daughters, named Joylette. Constance was born in April, 1943, and Katherine (Kathy) was born in April, 1944. Katherine and Jimmie moved to Bluefield, Virginia in 1947, where they both taught at Tazewell County  School. After losing their house in a fire, Katherine and Jimmie moved to the Newport News-Hampton Roads area. Katherine's sister Margaret and her husband had told Katherine about a secret government project on the Virginia peninsula where Colored women were working as "computers".  While Jimmie got a job as a painter at the Newport News shipyard, Katherine decided to try for a position as a mathematician at NACA (the forerunner of NASA). Eventually, Katherine was offered a job as a computer at NACA. It would be the beginning of a stellar career in the space industry, where she would have a profound impact on the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions, and blaze a trail for women in science and engineering, especially African-American women.

Discussion

Reaching For The Moon is the inspiring story of Katherine Johnson, an African-American woman mathematician who led an extraordinary life. Johnson wrote her story in the hopes of inspiring young people to "reach for the moon in their own lives", no matter their circumstances. For Katherine Johnson, those circumstances were systemic discrimination based on race and gender.

As a young Black girl, growing up in racially segregated America during the 1920's and 1930's, Katherine experienced many serious challenges. Racial segregation and systemic racism meant fewer opportunities for African-Americans who struggled to obtain an education. When her father was born, about half of African Americans were unable to read. Katherine explains why White Americans were against educating Blacks and how the difficulty in obtaining an education made her father highly value an education.

Katherine writes how "...Colored people strove to educate themselves - organizing, creating self-help groups, running for office, fighting to change laws, founding schools, and so on."  Katherine's parents valued a good education so much they sacrificed to ensure their children were able to attend schools. Katherine notes of her father, "Because his own education had been prohibited, his children's was extremely important to him....Like many other Colored people of that era, he saw education as the pathway his children could follow to escape indignities and dangers, large and small." Repeatedly her father moved his family near good schools and even endured years of separation from his family, so that his daughters could receive a good education.

Katherine traces her own path through the years of the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the Space Race of the 1960's, set against the backdrop of the struggle by African-Americans for racial equality, desegregation, the right to vote, and the right to an education. She describes how schools for Black children were often deprived of funding, and the teachers poorly paid but how this situation also resulted in highly qualified teachers and well-educated Black students who went on to make significant contributions to America.

In Reaching For The Moon, Katherine describes the contributions she was most proud of at NACA and its successor, NASA. She attributes her success to her unprecedented habit of  asking questions of NASA engineers, so she could understand their thinking. This was to ensure her calculations were correct. It was something the other "computers" had never done, because it was expected that the women computers would not question the men engineers. "Having enough information to do my work accurately was essential; so I just ignored the social customs that told me to stay in my place. I would keep asking questions until I was satisfied with the results...Quietly the quality of my contribution began to outweigh the arbitrary laws of racial segregation and the dictates that held back my gender."

It is evident from Reaching For The Moon, that Katherine Johnson was a very gifted mathematician whose contributions were significant in both the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. But she was also a woman of determination, perseverance and courage.  Her life was not without tragedy, as she lost her beloved first husband, Jimmie Gobles in 1956 when she was thirty-eight years old. Katherine passed away in February of 2020 at the age of one hundred and one.

In Reaching For The Moon, Katherine repeatedly mentions the advice her father gave her, "You are no better than anyone else, but nobody else is better than you." It was advice she would remember all her life, giving her the self-confidence in a world that saw her as unequal. Katherine Johnson's autobiography is a must-read for girls and teens of all backgrounds, but especially those from marginalized communities and those contemplating a career in science. 

Book Details:

Reaching For The Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson

New York: Atheneum Books For Young Readers   2019
248 pp.

One Step Further by Katherine Johnson

In One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission, Katherine Johnson, famed human computer who helped with the space race, and her daughters tell their story and how her life influenced them.

Katherine Johnson loved numbers as a child. This love she passed on to her daughters, Joylette, Connie and Kathy. At this time she was married to Jimmie Coleman. In her own home, math and music were prominent. They went to Sunday school and regular school.

During the time that Katherine's children attended school, Jim Crow laws were in effect. This meant that black people had to be kept separate from white people. Often the segregated facilities were not as nice as those for white people. Although life was hard, the three sisters were protected by the community they lived in.

Katherine had graduated summa cum from West Virginia State college, earning here degree in math. She found work as a teacher but it was considered a dangerous job for a black woman due to discrimination. Many did not want Black children to be educated. So Katherine and Jimmie moved their family to a new place. But even in their new home, Katherine's daughters still experienced segregation. 

Then Katherine got a new job at the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics as a human computer. Instead of computers, humans would make the calculations that engineers relied on to help planes fly farther and faster. So every morning, Katherine dressed in her pearls and a good skirt and jacket, went to work with many other college-educated African-American women who worked as mathematicians. Katherine's daughters found role models in these women.

Because white people felt that African Americans were not as smart, Katherine felt that they had to look and be perfect. Like the society they lived in, her workplace was also segregated.

Unlike most of the other computers, Katherine wanted to know the why of the math and how it was being used. After pressuring to attend meetings, Katherine was allowed to go. At this time NACA was renamed NASA and it's mission was to send humans into space. This work was top secret so she couldn't talk about it at home either. At night Katherine would talk to her daughters about the stars, pointing out the Big Dipper and Orion's Belt.

As her children grew up they became involved in the fight for equality. Her daughter Kathy attending college peacefully protested to end racial segregation. 

John Glenn Jr. was chosen to be the first American to fly into space. To help with the space race, NASA began to use machine computers. While these machines were faster than the human computers, were they just as accurate. John Glenn wasn't so sure and he would not fly until the machine calculations were checked by Katherine! She also helped with the calculations that were needed to send man to the moon. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins blasted into space on their way to the moon.

Katherine's daughters did go one step further inspired by their mathematician mother: Joylette worked at NASA, while both Kathy and Connie became teachers. Katherine retired from NASA in 1986.In 2018, NASA named an entire facility after Katherine Johnson.

Discussion

This engaging picture book tells the story of Katherine Johnson, human computer and mathematician extraordinaire. One Step Further not only tells Katherine's remarkable story but focuses on how her life and accomplishments encouraged her own daughters to go "one step further". It is a story of a brilliant, determined African-American woman who overcame  several social obstacles to become a major force in the race to put a man on the moon. Despite the obvious obstacles racial segregation presented, Katherine also had to confront sexual discrimination in the workplace. One Step Further portrays Katherine as a woman who did not back down. In this way, Katherine is presented as a good role model for women and especially women of colour to confront and break down barriers.

And Katherine's daughters were able to go "one step further" due to changes brought about by the civil rights movement and their own determined efforts. Joylette Goble Hylikc received a Masters of Science in Management Information Systems and worked at NASA before working at Lockheed Martin as a senior requirements engineer. Katherine Goble Moore also received a masters from Montclair State University and worked as an educator for thirty-three years. Connie Goble Boykin Garcia passed away in 2010. She also worked as a teacher after completing a bachelor's degree from Hampton Institute/University.

Accompanying the text, are many interesting photographs of Katherine and her children, as well as historic photos of racial segregation, protests against segregation  Katherine working at NASA, John Glenn Jr. and Buzz Aldrin. The photographs of racial segregation are important as they show younger readers what living under Jim Crow laws was like for Katherine and her family and other African-Americans.

Illustrator Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, granddaughter of Caldecott-winning illustrator Jerry Pinkney, wanted to portray both Katherine, John Glenn Jr. and Buzz Aldrin in a way that fit with the photographs included, adding a layer of context to the story.

The back matter includes detailed Historical Notes & Context: Racial Segregation in the United States and About Katherine Johnson, as well as a Timeline and a Glossary. 

A very well-done children's biography about an amazing woman, whose contributions to space science were considerable and long overdue in being recognized.

Book Details:

One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission by Katherine Johnson
Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Kids    2021

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything by Martin W. Sandler

But now it was the whole globe receding in size, dwindling until it became a disk.  We were the first humans to see the world in its majestic totality, an intensely emotional experience for each of us. We said nothing to each other, but I was sure out thoughts were identical -- of our families on that spinning globe. And maybe we shared another thought I had...This must be what God sees." 
                                                                                                             Frank Borman


As with any book about the space race, Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything begins with President John F. Kennedy's famous speech on May 25, 1961, challenging America to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's.

The Americans seemed to be well behind the Soviets who had not only launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, but also sent Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin into orbit around the Earth, the first human to do so. In 1961, communism seemed to be on the rise in every part of the world: a new communist government had been established in Cuba, half of the city of Berlin had just been taken over by communists and the civil war in Vietnam was about to intensify.

In the 1960s, the space program in the U.S. continued to work towards its goal of putting a man on the moon. Each mission built upon the  previous one, which offered  lessons. In 1968, Apollo 8 was set to launch on December 21 and this mission would be another step in that goal, testing the lunar module. But the objective of the mission was drastically altered and escalated when NASA learned from the CIA that the Soviets had a rocket capable of carrying two men to the moon and that it was being moved into launch position. Although the Soviets would not able to land on the Moon, a successful mission to the Moon would mean they would be able to say they were first to the Moon.

George Low, manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program knew he had to act. Low came up with the plan to send Apollo 8, sans lunar lander to the Moon, to test communications and navigation systems. Low knew he would have to sell this to the head of the Apollo project, Christopher Kraft, but in the end he succeeded. Not only was getting to the Moon first an important technological achievement in terms of the space race, it was important too. One of the main objectives of the space race was to prove that American capitalism was more successful than Soviet communism.

All three Apollo 8 astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders were on board with the revised mission objectives. Eventually NASA's Administrator, James E Webb also gave the go-ahead for the revised mission that would see Apollo 8 head to the moon and return to Earth. This decision meant enormous changes to the mission; a new flight plan and retraining the astronauts, in particular Bill Anders who was to pilot the lunar module but now had to train for the command and service modules. Anders was also responsible for "surveying the lunar surface for future landing sites."

What follows is the thrilling account of Apollo 8's remarkable journey from liftoff atop the Saturn V rocket to the Moon and back. Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything tells the story of how NASA scientists and the Apollo 8 astronauts came together, took enormous risks to make a daring mission an outstanding success.

Discussion

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything tells the story of the remarkable mission that was rejigged in order to put America ahead of the Soviets in the space race. Sandler begins by setting the stage for the events of Apollo 8 - the famous speech by Kennedy. However, the original objectives of the Apollo 8 mission were drastically altered when new intelligence revealed the Soviet Union's potential ability to travel to the Moon. From this point on, Sandler focuses on the changes to the Apollo mission and the enormous risks the Apollo 8 astronauts were being asked to undertake.

These risks included creating new flight plan and using the largest rocket in the world that was still largely untested. Then there was the difficulty of both placing the spacecraft on trajectory to intersect the Moon as well as achieving lunar orbit. NASA flight director Gene Kranz likened the first to "threading the needle, shooting a spacecraft from a rotating Earth at the leading edge of the Moon, a moving target a quarter of a million miles away."  The enormous distance between the Earth and Moon meant that should anything go wrong, and the trip back was three days. The astronauts also needed to perform an SPS burn to put them into orbit around the moon and a third burn to push them out of lunar orbit and back to Earth. On their return to Earth they also needed to accomplish reentry exactly. If the spacecraft's reentry was too steep, the gravitational forces on the astronauts as well as temperatures on the craft's heat shield would be extreme. A too shallow reentry would mean the risk of the spacecraft "bouncing off" the atmosphere causing it to "soar into a huge elliptical orbit around the earth."

Earthrise taken by Bill Anders

Much of the backstory to space exploration and the United States and Soviet space programs is told in separate sections using light blue paper with a faint image of the Moon. These sections are informative and fill in the blanks on certain aspects of the story, both cultural and science related. For example,  Pioneers of Rocketry explores the three scientists who laid the groundwork for modern rocketry, Russia's Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Germany's Hermann Oberth,  and the United States' Robert Goddard. Other special topics include Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Korolev who developed the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and who also designed Sputnik. Other sections include Paving the Way For Apollo 8 which summaries the first space missions that laid the groundwork for Apollo 8 including Project Mercury and the Gemini missions, The Families which focuses on how the mission impacted the astronauts families, and What's In A Name which discusses how areas of the Moon have been named.

Apollo 8 captures the astronaut's reactions to the incredible experiences of seeing Earth diminish as they travelled towards the Moon, recording the Earth rise on the Moon's horizon and seeing the dark side of the Moon for the first time. All three astronauts were deeply affected by these sights. What struck them was the Earth's fragility. Anders' colour photograph titled Earthrise made different impressions on each of the astronauts. For Lovell, it "became a symbol of the Earth's fragility, a reminder of just how small and insignificant the Earth's place in the universe truly is..." This impression was not unique to just Lovell, but to the millions and millions of people on Earth who watch the broadcasts from Apollo 8 and who saw this photograph.

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything is a fascinating account of a mission that changed the space race and gave the American's the technical advantage to successfully land on the Moon a mere seven months later. Sandler includes plenty of photographs, a detailed section containing Source Notes, a Bibliography, short profiles of the Apollo 8 astronauts after the mission and an Index. A great book for anyone interested in accounts of the space race and the Apollo missions.

Earthrise image:  https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181224.html

Book Details:

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything by Martin W. Sandler
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press        2018
160 pp.

Destination Moon by Seymour Simon

In Destination Moon, prolific children's science writer Seymour Simon chronicles the events leading up to the American Moon landing in July of 1969. As expected the story opens with United States president John F. Kennedy's famous speech at Rice University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1962. In that speech, Kennedy challenged America to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. This was the start of the space race between the United States and the Communist Soviet Union.

With each page featuring full colour photographs, Simon begins by explaining the importance of learning more about the Moon to aid in our understanding of the solar system and provides so he provides readers with some basic information about our closest neighbour in the solar system.

The space era was initiated by the launch of the Soviet Union and the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik in October of 1957. The American's followed with their Explorer satellite missions.The Explorer 3 mission confirmed the existence of the Earth's magnetic fields and their protective function against damaging cosmic rays.

Destination Moon describes Project Mercury which ran from 1958 to 1963. Its six missions were designed to place an astronaut into orbit and safely return him to Earth. The group of astronauts chosen for these missions were called the "Mercury Seven" and were chosen from military test pilots. The seven were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.

Project Gemini which spanned the years 1961 to 1966, was the next step to the moon. Its purpose was to solve some of the problems associated with landing on the Moon. In an attempt to learn more about conditions on the Moon, NASA sent seven unmanned reconnaissance missions using the Surveyor spacecraft to the Moon. Surveyor also tested the use of retro-rockets to slow down a space craft so it could achieve a soft landing.

The objective of Project Apollo from 1963 to 1972, was to land man on the Moon. Simon takes his young readers through the obstacles engineers encountered as they planned the spacecraft that would take man to the Moon. Full colour photographs accompanied by detailed text explain the Lunar Module, the Eagle and its landing on Tranquility Base, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon walks and the challenge to return to Earth safely.

As 2019 is the fiftieth anniversary of the Moon landings, Destination Moon is yet another of many  books written for young readers offering them all the details of the race to the Moon and the historic landing on the Moon. Seymour Simon sets the stage in his Author's Note at the very beginning, by recounting his own personal experience of watching the moon walk on the night of July 20, 1969, an event I too remember very well even though I was only ten years old! Seymour Simon was a dad at the time whose two children "Robert and Michael, cheered as Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder of the Eagle and stepped out onto the surface of the Moon."

Seymour Simon includes plenty of factoids throughout his picture book. For example the contribution of the human computers, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan to the success of the early Mercury missions is highlighted. Adults will remember their story as told in the book and movie, Hidden Figures. There is an interesting section on how the Apollo mission impacted the families of the astronauts and mention also of the speech President Richard Nixon had prepared should the astronauts fail to leave the surface of the Moon. Thankfully that disaster never materialized.

The author employs simple text and explains some basic concepts such as escape velocity and rocket stages. Terms that may be new to readers such as seismometer and basalt are highlighted in bold blue text and are explained in the Glossary at the back. A timeline summary of the Race to Space can also be found at the back.


 A great gift for the budding young astronomer.

Book Details:

Destination Moon by Seymour Simon
New York: HarperCollins     2019

The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon by Dean Robbins

The Astronaut Who Painted the Moon is about Alan Bean, NASA astronaut who flew on Apollo 12 and who is also know for his artwork portraying his space experiences. In this picture book by Dean Robbins, Bean, after blasting off in a rocket to take him to the moon, reminisces about dreaming about becoming a pilot someday. He took navy flight training and wished he could paint what he saw. In art class, Bean learned about patterns and forms and experimented with bold bright colours. He wanted his art to convey to people how he felt.

Bean's spacecraft took four days to travel the 240,000 miles to the Moon. On the Moon, Bean found it had its own kind of beauty, "Gray dust as far as he could see. Thousands of black craters. Hard white sunlight. And everything perfectly still."

Bean enjoyed his time on the Moon and was puzzled and entranced by its uniqueness and difference to Earth. When he tried to explain what it was like he found words were simply not enough. To convey to friends and family just what it was like, Bean began to paint the Moon and the astronauts. He used unusual colours, stamped them with astronaut boots, even sprinkled dust from his spacesuits on his art! His artwork was appealing and eventually came to be displayed in galleries. Alan Bean had succeeded in conveying to others the stark beauty he experienced on the Moon.

Discussion
The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon gives young readers an inside look at the remarkable life of Alan Bean, astronaut and painter extraordinaire.

Alan LaVern Bean was born on March 15, 1932 in Wheeler, Texas. Bean attended the University of Texas, where he was a Navy ROTC student, earning a degree in aeronautical engineering. After completing flight training Bean became part of Attack Squadron 44 based at Jacksonville, Florida. In 1960, Bean attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland. His instructor was Pete Conrad who would later be his commander on Apollo 12. Bean was a test pilot who flew several different types of test aircraft.

Bean missed being selected for the second group of NASA astronauts but was selected in the third group in October of 1963. He was part of the backup crew for Gemini 10 and Apollo 9. On the Apollo 12 mission, Bean was the Lunar Command Module pilot. The launch saw the rocket hit twice by lightning which scrambled the electrical systems but the mission went forward without complications after Bean restored the telemetry system. Apollo 12 with Bean and Pete Conrad landed on the Moon's Ocean of Storms while Dick Gordon remained in the command module orbiting the moon. On November 19, 1969,  Bean was the fourth man to walk on the surface of the Moon.

In 1973, Bean returned to space as the Commander of the second crew to inhabit the Skylab space station built by the Americans. He was also part of the Space Shuttle program, but in the capacity of training astronauts. This gave Bean the time to work a bit on his artistic endeavours. Bean retired from NASA in 1981 and passed away in 2018, the last crew member of Apollo 12.

Bean was overwhelmed by his experience on the Moon's surface. Having taking art courses before he became an astronaut, Bean decided to retire in 1981 and devote his time to painting. He wanted to convey this experiences on the Moon through his art. As a scientist Bean would have had to paint the Moon grey, but as an artist he could consider the use of colour. And that's what he worked on - how to paint the Moon in colours that would work, while still portraying in realistically.

Bean had never seriously considered becoming an artist until a friend suggested he try this after his Skylab mission. He preferred to work in acrylics. What makes Bean's artwork even more interesting and unique is that the base coat of all his paintings contain pieces of the flag or name tag sewn on his space suit, pieces of the Kaplan gold foil from the command module, and even charred pieces from the command module. Readers can learn more about Alan Bean's artistic process at alanbeangallery.com Select Alan Bean - Artist and Astronaut which links to an essay by Ulrich Lotzmann about Bean's NASA career and his technique as an artist.

Artist Sean Rubin attempts to capture Bean's style of painting through his own illustrations in The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon. Rubin uses crosshatching to provide some texture as well as unusual colours such as vibrant purples, reds and blues - colours not found on the Moon, in his illustrations, mimicking to some extent Bean's portrayal of the Moon and the astronauts. The cover which shows Bean painting on the moon, while not realistic (he only painted back on Earth!) conveys how Bean himself viewed his life, "...as an artist who was once an astronaut."

Robbins includes a short section on Alan Bean along with some of his paintings based on photographs taken during the Moon walks, as well as A Brief History Of Space Exploration in the form of a timeline.

The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon will be of interest to those doing a space unit, those interested in moon exploration and the Apollo program as well as STEAM activities as this book melds both science and art. Well presented and highly recommended.

Book Details:

The Astronaut who Painted The Moon by Dean Robbins
New York: Orchard Books         2019

Movie: Hidden Figures

The movie Hidden Figures tells the remarkable story of three gifted African-American women mathematicians who made significant contributions to the American space program during a time when segregation and racial discrimination against blacks and women was an ongoing problem in America.

The film opens with a brief backstory of the three women,Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae).  Katherine Johnson is the focus of the film but Vaughan and Jackson's experiences are also chronicled. Katherine is shown to be gifted in mathematics and her parents are encouraged to enroll her in a new school where her abilities are further developed. The film moves quickly to the year 1961 where the three women work at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The tone of the film is set early one when the three women are at the side of the road where Dorothy is working on getting their car running again. A state trooper pulls up, overly suspicious and demanding identification when the women insist they work for NASA. It's obvious he can't believe NASA hires blacks and much less black women. Appealing to his patriotism, the convince the trooper to give them an escort to the facility. The ensuing race to Langley is one of the film's comedic moments.

All three work in the West Area Computers which was a segregated area of Langley as "computers", a name given to those who solved complex mathematical equations before the mainframe computer was in use. Dorothy hopes to become a supervisor but she is repeatedly passed over, while Mary aspires to be an engineer, a career path not open to women and certainly not a black woman. They are all working towards putting a man in space and attempting to catch up to the Russians who have successfully launched a satellite, Sputnik. To that end, Dorothy's supervisor, Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst) visits the West Area Computers and requests Dorothy send her a computer who can do complex math quickly. Dorothy immediately suggests Katherine whom she identifies as someone who can do anything you can throw at her.

Katherine is sent to work with the Space Task Force headed up by Al Harrison (Kevin Costner). The Space Task Force is in a different building with no bathrooms for colored women. Her initial days in the Space Task Force are fraught with discrimination. She is mistaken for a cleaning lady, given calculations to check that have been severely redacted and is forced to use a separate coffee flask. As there are no colored bathrooms Katherine must leave her desk for twenty minutes to run across the center to the colored bathrooms in the west area. Her main nemesis is Paul Stafford who works to make Katherine's job as difficult as possible and refuses to allow her to sign her name to the daily reports.

Katherine's incredible mathematical genius soon becomes apparent.  Katherine's first assignment is to verify all the calculations for Alan Shepard's mission, a parabolic trajectory which will send him into suborbital flight. The Space Task Center needs to know his exact trajectory from lift-off to splash-down. Despite being given calculations with much information redacted, Katherine is able to accomplish her task. Shepard's mission is a huge success but the most daunting one was to come.

During this time, Dorothy Vaughan's attempts to get promoted to supervisor are thwarted by Vivian Mitchell. Mary Jackson is sent over to engineering where she meets aeronautical engineer Karl Zielinski who encourages her to pursue an engineering degree. However, despite having degrees in math and physical science, Mary discovers that she needs to take night courses at Hampton High School which is a segregated school.

Two 7090 IBM computers,NASA during Project Mercury 1962
Taken by Christopher C. Kraft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_7090#/media/File:NASAComputerRoom7090.NARA.jpg

After working on Alan Shepard's mission, Harrison's group focused on the math necessary to send astronaut John Glenn into an orbital path around the Earth and then safely returning him. This was the main goal of the Mercury project. Glenn would attain an orbital path after blasting off from earth atop a powerful rocket. In the movie there seems to be some issue as to which rocket would be used. The Redstone rockets, developed by Von Braun continue to crash. Katherine's calculations demonstrate that the rocket is too heavy and does not have the power to achieve the required trajectory required to orbit the earth. Katherine Johnson, using math convinces her coworkers that this must be atop the more powerful Atlas rocket rather than the Redstone. It is Glenn's mission that the movie focuses on.

Katherine's job is to verify all the calculations but she appears to be hindered by the racist environment at NASA that sees her taking twenty-minute bathroom breaks because she has to run across the compound to use the colored bathroom. Frustrated with this situation, Harrison confronts Katherine who explains what she is experiencing working at NASA and in an iconic scene, Harrison is seen smashing the sign for the colored bathroom. After it's announced that John Glenn (Glen Powell) will be the astronaut to fly in the first orbital mission he is taken on a tour of Langley. The black staff is separated from the white staff and the intent is that they will not meet Glenn. In Hidden Figures, Glenn is portrayed as the consummate gentleman, kind and courteous. In the movie this comes across quite clearly. He is shown as determined to meet the African-American staff when it's evident NASA brass aren't interested in him doing so.

As Katherine works on the Mercury project, the film explores the situations of Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson to a lesser extent. NASA sees the arrival of the IBM 7090 mainframe computer but the computer sits idle in a room because the technicians cannot get it working. Harrison is disgusted by this failure. Dorothy on her way back to the west computer group sees the computer room empty and decides to learn more about it and how to program it. She recognizes that her computers will no longer be needed once the mainframe is up and running, so she decides to learn programming and to teacher her computers as well. In this way they will be able to save their jobs. She is forced to steal a book on FORTRAN programming from the public library because as a black woman she is unable to sign out books. Dorothy learns FORTRAN, gets the IBM working and sets to teaching her computers the language. Mary Johnson, encouraged by mentor Karl Zielinski, applies to the court and is granted permission to attend night classes to earn the credits she needs for engineering school.

The climax of the film is Glenn's historic flight into space. His mission had been delayed several times due to various issues, but the Friendship 7 was launched into orbit on February 20,  1962. Similar to what real life, Glenn wanted Johnson to verify the trajectory computed by the new IBM computer,  "get the girl to check the numbers... If she says the numbers are good... I'm ready to go."

Besides portraying the exception mathematical abilities of Vaughan, Johnson and Jackson, Hidden Figures also shows that these women had lives outside of NASA: they were working mothers with children, wives with husbands and still had to conform to social conventions for women. Although the historical accuracy is fairly good for the different NASA missions shown the film does contain some inaccuracies. The overarching theme of the movie is that systemic racial discrimination and sexist bias was a significant factor in impeding America's progress in the space race. However, that's not exactly an accurate portrayal of the situation at NASA for this time period.  For example, in Hidden Figures Dorothy Vaughan does not become a supervisor until the end of the movie which is sometime in1962. In fact Vaughan was promoted to supervisor of the colored computers in 1949, becoming the first black manager. Katherine Johnson is shown repeatedly running across the compound to use the "colored" bathroom. However, when NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) became NASA in 1958, segregated facilities (bathrooms, dining areas and work areas) were abolished. Dorothy Vaughan was part of a racially integrated Analysis and Computation Division that included both men and women. In the film Mary Jackson also does not earn her engineering degree until later on but in fact Jackson became NASA's first black female engineer in 1958. And Katherine Johnson began working in the Space Task Group in 1958. She also had co-authored a report in 1960 on the equations for determining the orbital spaceflight of a spacecraft with a known landing.

Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Monae all give outstanding performances supported by a capable cast that includes Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons and Glen Powell. The film includes much historic film footage including news casts from the early 1960's. Hidden Figures not only presents side of the space race that many viewers are completely unfamiliar with, it also is an important vehicle for promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers to young girls who might see the film. This is a film not to be missed especially if you have an interest in the space race of the 1960's.

Those wanting to explore further the story of the black women mathematicians who were the hidden figures behind the NASA space program and victory in the space race are encouraged to read Margot Lee Shetterly's, Hidden Figure.

For more information on Dorothy Vaughan see her biography page at NASA's website.

For more information on Katherine Johnson see her biography page at NASA's website.

Mary Jackson's biography page can also be found on the NASA website.

For information on specific NASA missions the NASA webpage, "Humans In Space" has detailed information.

One of the trailers for Hidden Figures: