- - The Inspiring True Story of “Hidden Figures”: Meet the Real NASA Mathematicians Who Got Man on the Moon

Nicole BrieseJanuary 19, 2026 at 6:00 AM

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Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures (2016) ; NASA space scientist, and mathematician Katherine Johnson at NASA Langley Research Center in 1966 in Hampton, Virginia.

Hidden Figures may have been a box office sensation thanks to its leading ladies Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe, but it was the story of the real NASA women behind the film that captivated the world.

The behind-the-scenes calculations done by mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson became instrumental to the space race missions headed by astronauts such as John Glenn (the first American to orbit the Earth), Alan Shepard (the first American in space) and Neil Armstrong (the first person to walk on the moon).

"These [women] are our true American heroes," Monáe, who portrayed Jackson in the three-time Oscar-nominated movie told CNN. "It's because of them that we can have that as America. We can feel proud that we achieved something so extraordinary."

More than nailing their numbers, the real-life women behind the characters, known as “calculators” in the NASA Langley Research Center where they worked, were pioneers of the workforce, overcoming gender and race discrimination to break glass ceilings in their field.

Johnson gave Henson and co. her stamp of approval, telling the Los Angeles Times of the film, “It was well-done. The three leading ladies did an excellent job portraying us.”

Keep reading to find out the inspired true story of Hidden Figures, from its historically accurate events to its inspiring real-life trailblazers.

Who was Katherine Johnson?

NASA/Donaldson Collection/Getty

Katherine Johnson.

Creola Katherine Johnson, known as the “human computer,” was a mathematician who worked for NASA from 1953 to 1986.

Having entered high school at the age of 10, she graduated summa cum laude from college at age 18 per the organization. “I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed ... anything that could be counted, I did,” she later recalled to NASA.

The Virginia school teacher went on to become the first Black woman to integrate into West Virginia University’s graduate school in 1939, though she left prematurely to focus on her family with husband James Goble. Johnson later married James A. Johnson following Goble’s death in 1956.

After joining NASA in 1953, Johnson continued to make history. In 1960, she co-authored a report with a NASA engineer, marking the first time a woman in her flight research division had ever been credited on a research report. “The movie and book were pretty accurate. Women did not have their names included as authors on technical [papers] in the early days,” Johnson later told the Los Angeles Times.

According to the institution, Johnson’s calculations were instrumental in supporting some of the biggest milestones in aeronautic history. She contributed a trajectory analysis for Freedom 7, the first American spacecraft to carry a person into space in 1961. She also famously ran hand calculations confirming the computerized orbital equations that controlled the trajectory of Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission — the first to orbit Earth — in 1962.

In later years, Johnson worked on what she went on to cite as her greatest contribution to space: her calculations for the organization’s Apollo projects, including the lunar module (the lander spacecraft that allowed for Apollo 11’s first flight to the Moon), the Apollo 11 mission, and the Apollo 13 mission, for which she provided contingency procedures that allowed its astronauts to get home safely when its equipment malfunctioned.

She also reportedly worked on calculations for the fourth human space flight program, a.k.a. the Space Shuttle program, and helped create plans for a mission to Mars.

Who was Dorothy Vaughan?

NASA via AP

Dorothy J. Vaughan.

Dorothy Jean Johnson Vaughan was a noteworthy NASA figure not only for her own mathematical contributions to the organization, but for her role as a supervisor over other key mathematics whizzes, including Johnson and Jackson.

The first Black woman to be promoted to a management position, Vaughan headed up the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA’s) segregated west area computing unit, where Johnson and Jackson both worked, from 1949 until 1958. She advocated for the visibility of her team and even made arguments for the promotion of White female "computers" at NASA.

As The Monroe News reported, Vaughan also contributed her own impressive figures, working as a mathematician on the SCOUT Launch Vehicle News program. This program ultimately allowed America to send its first satellites into space in 1958.

When segregated facilities were abolished at NASA (the former NACA), Vaughan joined the integrated Analysis and Computation Division (ACD), where she became an expert in FORTRAN, the language used by NASA’s IBM mainframe computers.

Vaughan retired in 1971 per The Monroe News.

Who was Mary Jackson?

Bob Nye/NASA/Interim Archives/Getty

Mary Jackson working at NASA's Langley Research Center in 1980 in Hampton, Virginia.

Mary Winston Jackson was NASA’s first Black female engineer.

Prior to being promoted to the post in 1958 from her position as a computer at the west area computing unit of Langley under Vaughan, Jackson obtained permission from the city of Hampton to take graduate-level math and physics courses at the University of Virginia alongside white peers.

In her years as a NASA engineer, Jackson co-authored at least a dozen reports.

According to Scientific Women, she studied air flow, thrust and drag forces and analyzed data from wind tunnel experiments in an effort to improve U.S. aircrafts. Her work helped to advance the Apollo 11 mission, for which she earned an Apollo Group Achievement Award in 1969.

Jackson maintained her position for nearly two decades before accepting a demotion in 1979 to become both the federal women’s program manager and the affirmative action program manager. Her efforts there were primarily focused on hiring and promoting mathematicians, engineers and scientists from diverse backgrounds within NASA.

How did the women of Hidden Figures contribute to the space race?

NASA/Donaldson Collection/Getty

Katherine Johnson at NASA Langley Research Center in 1962 in Hampton, Virginia.

Johnson, Jackson and Vaughan were all involved in key projects that advanced the U.S. toward its ultimate goal of landing a man on the moon on July 20, 1969, effectively ending the longstanding space race.

Vaughan’s calculations contributed to the SCOUT Launch Vehicle News program, which allowed America to send satellites into space in January 1958, just three months after the Soviets launched their version, Sputnik 1, in October 1957.

Johnson’s figures later enabled the U.S. to answer the Soviets’ April 1961 Vostok 1 flight, which made cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin both the first man in space and the first to orbit the planet. Thanks in part to the human computer, the May 1961 Freedom 7 mission made Shepard the first American in space.

Per The Monroe News, all three women are credited with working on the 1962 Friendship 7 mission, during which astronaut Glenn orbited the Earth, settling the score with the Soviets, who had accomplished the feat roughly one year prior.

Johnson’s figures and Jackson’s research were crucial to the Apollo projects, which clinched the space race for the U.S. when Armstrong first set foot on the moon in 1969. Vaughan’s work was also integral, leading NASA to dedicate building 12 at the Johnson Space Center to her on the 55th anniversary of the landing.

Was Hidden Figures historically accurate?

NASA/Donaldson Collection/Getty

Katherine Johnson.

While Hidden Figures took some liberties with the film’s timeline — Jackson, for example, made history as the NASA’s first Black engineer in 1958, three years before the film’s 1961 setting — other points were historically accurate, including the women’s struggles with discrimination.

Per NASA, Johnson’s father did drive 120 miles everyday from his job to where his children were allowed to get an education beyond the eighth grade, for eight consecutive years.

A scene in which Johnson is seen fighting for her right to attend briefings as a woman was based on Johnson’s own real-life experiences, per NASA. According to the organization, she asked if there was a law against a woman’s attendance, and when she was told no, she began to show up.

As seen in the film, Jackson did need to petition the city of Hampton for the right to study among her white peers, per Popular Mechanics.

Other elements, like the characters of Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons) and Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst), however, were created for the film.

Were the three women in Hidden Figures really friends?

Hopper Stone/Twentieth Century Fox

Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe in Hidden Figures.

It’s unclear exactly how close Johnson, Vaughn and Jackson were in real life. While the three women worked together, moments they shared in the film, such as riding to work together, were likely fictionalized.

Hidden Figures book author Margot Lee Shetterly wrote that Johnson actually commuted with neighbor Eunice Smith, who lived three blocks down from her.

“In the early days of June 1953, when Eunice Smith drove over to Katherine’s house to pick her up for work, the two women started a routine that would persist for the next three decades,” the author reportedly explained. “Eunice Smith was Katherine’s steadfast companion and confidante. The two of them spent more time together than many married couples.”

What did John Glenn actually think of Katherine Johnson?

20th Century Fox - Levantine Films/Alamy

Glen Powell, Octavia Spencer and Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures.

Based on the astronaut’s directives to have Johnson double check the work of Langley’s newly acquired IBM 7090 computer, which is featured in the film, Glenn trusted Johnson with his life. “If she says they’re good, then I am ready to go,” he said per NASA.

Johnson spoke to the Los Angeles Times about her decision to use Euler’s method to figure out how to get Glenn down from orbit. “It seemed logical to me. I could see in my mind what I needed and sort of worked backwards,” she said.

Johnson also opened up about her thoughts on Glenn, telling the outlet that while she “did not see [the astronauts] much,” “they knew my record for accuracy.”

Did the bathroom scene in Hidden Figures actually happen?

Bob Nye/NASA/Donaldson Collection/Getty

Mathmatician Mary Jackson at NASA Langley Research Center in 1977 in Hampton, Virginia.

According to Johnson, the bathroom scene in Hidden Figures, in which her on-screen namesake explains to Harrison that she is taking time away from work to walk half a mile across the NASA campus to find a segregated bathroom each day, was a fictitious scene written for the film.

Johnson told VICE News Tonight in 2017 that she paid no mind to segregation as far as the restroom went. “I just went on in the White one,” she said.

Film co-writer Allison Schroeder told VICE she was instead inspired by an anecdote from Jackson in Shetterly’s book in which her White female colleagues laughed at her inquiries about the bathroom.

“The White women laughed because there was not one for her and that hers is half a mile away on the other side of campus, on the old side of campus,” she said. “It’s often these small and daily indignities that we need to talk about more.”

What happened to Johnson, Vaughan and Jackson?

Kevin Winter/Getty

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson and actors Janelle Monae, Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer during the 89th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California.

Following her retirement in 1986, Johnson was widely recognized for her achievements in the field. In 2015, the math genius was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, per NASA.

She was also posthumously awarded the National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal — the same medal which was awarded to the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 — and a congressional gold medal in 2019 in recognition of her service as a mathematician. Johnson died at the age of 101 on Feb. 24, 2020.

Vaughan retired from her career in 1971 and died on Nov. 10, 2008. She was posthumously awarded with a congressional gold medal in 2019. Vaughan also received a historic statue in her honor in 2019, per the Daily Press.

Jackson retired from Langley after 34 years in 1985, and she died peacefully at the age of 83 on Feb. 11, 2005.

She was honored several times over after her death, with an elementary school being renamed in her honor in 2018 and a NASA Washington D.C. headquarters building following suit in June 2020. In 2019, Jackson received both a posthumous gold congressional medal of honor and a statue in her hometown of Hampton, Va.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”