A familiar face has signed on to the film "Hidden Figures," which tells the story of the black women who helped NASA win the space race. Pharrell Williams will produce and score music for the film. The woman is Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician who helped take the American space program to new heights. During her time at NASA, Katherine Johnson helped send the first Americans into space and to the moon, calculating most of the coordinates by hand. "We told them how fast they would be going, and the moon would be there by the time you got there," Johnson told Makers. Johnson's calculations were so accurate, legendary astronaut John Glenn requested that she double check NASA's new computers before he took off. Johnson began making her mark on space travel in the 1950s, when both women and blacks were marginalized in American society and at NASA. Johnson started working at NASA when it was still segregated. But her sharp skills earned her the nickname "the human computer" and helped her break through the barriers she and her colleagues faced. The woman who graduated from college at 18 is now a 97-year-old living legend, revered among her NASA successors. Johnson will be played by Taraji P. Henson in "Hidden Figures." Source: Newsy |