PLOT
In 1962, mathematician Katherine Goble Johnson works at the segregated West Area computers division of Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, alongside her colleagues aspiring engineer, Mary Jackson and informal supervisor Dorothy Vaughan.
Following the successful launch of the Sputnik 1, Al Harrison, the director of the space Task group, is pressured by his superiors to double his efforts to send American astronauts into space, and Katherine is assigned to assist them by her supervisor Vivian Mitchell, becoming the first African-American woman in the team. Katherine is forbidden to use the station's restroom, drink coffee from the same pot as her co-workers or wearing any kind of jewelry, aside from pearls, though Katherine reveals she doesn't own any.
Following the successful launch of the Sputnik 1, Al Harrison, the director of the space Task group, is pressured by his superiors to double his efforts to send American astronauts into space, and Katherine is assigned to assist them by her supervisor Vivian Mitchell, becoming the first African-American woman in the team. Katherine is forbidden to use the station's restroom, drink coffee from the same pot as her co-workers or wearing any kind of jewelry, aside from pearls, though Katherine reveals she doesn't own any.
Katherine's presence is initially dismissed by her colleagues and she is forced to work under belligerent head engineer Paul Stafford, while Dorothy's request to be officially promoted to supervisor is rejected by Vivian, and Mary identifies a flaw in the experimental space capsule's heat shields, encouraging her to more assertively pursue an engineering degree.
At a barbecue, Katherine meets United States Army officer, Jim Johnson and they are attracted to each other, but Katherine is disappointed when he voices his skepticism at the mathematical skills of the female analysts at West Area Computers. Harrison later invites his subordinates to solve a complex mathematical equation, and Katherine steps forward, leaving him impressed. Astronaut John Glenn later visits the facility and is cordial to the West Africa Computers employees.
Over time, Katherine becomes acquainted with her colleagues, Harrison abolishes bathroom segregation and despite Stafford's objections, allows Katherine to be included in their meetings, in which she creates an elaborate equation to guide the space capsule into a safe re-entry. Despite this, Katherine is forced to remove her name from the reports, which are credited solely to Stafford.
Meanwhile, Mary is granted permission to attend night classes in an all-white school to obtain her engineering degree and Dorothy becomes proficient in FORTRAN, a computer programming language, ultimately being named supervisor of a different department and arranging for her previous co-workers to be transferred there. Vivian congratulates Dorothy on her work and attempts to assure both Dorothy and herself that she never treated Dorothy differently due to her colour, but Dorothy is unconvinced. Meanwhile, Johnson apologizes to Katherine and they ultimately get married.
As the final arrangements for the launch of the Friendship 7 space mission are made, Katherine is informed she is no longer needed at Space Task Group and is being reassigned back to West Africa Computers. Her colleagues buy her a Pearl necklace as a farewell gift. Just prior to the launch , Discrepancies arise in the electronic calculations for the capsule's coordinates, and Glenn requests that Katherine be called in to check the calculations. Katherine quickly does so and hurriedly delivers the results to Harrison, who brings her into the control room so they can relay them to Glenn together.
After a successful launch, the space capsule has some heat shield problems and they decide to return the capsule after three orbits instead of seven for re-entry. Mary understands the situation and works with NASA to instruct them on how Glenn should operate the controls. Her instructions prove correct and the Friendship seven successfully lands in the ocean as the world celebrates.
Following the Friendship seven mission, the mathematicians at Langley are ultimately laid off and replaced by electronic computers, but Katherine is kept around and assigned to Analysis and Computation Division, while Mary obtains her engineering degree.
An epilogue reveals that Katherine calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 space mission as well, and was awarded the Presidential Medal Freedom in 2015. In 2016, the Langley Research Center, where she worked, was renamed the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, and she remained married to Jim Johnson until present day.
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