FEATURE Photo: IMDB A Review of the Award-Winning Hidden Figures Racial segregation inside NASA during the 1960s didn't hold back the aspirations of three female African-American mathematicians By MONICA ROZENFELD Katherine Johnson (center), played by actress Taraji P. Henson, worked at NASA as a mathematician, helping NASA launch its first successful manned mission around the Earth. As the associate editor of The Institute, I couldn't miss out on seeing the film Hidden Figures, a based-on-a-true-story movie about three female African-American mathematicians who helped launch NASA's first successful manned mission around the Earth. Known as Friendship 7, the mission took place on 20 February 1962, with astronaut John Glenn in the Mercury capsule becoming the first American to orbit Earth. While that's the background against which the movie is set, the untold story is about the women who helped make the voyage possible-and the discrimination they experienced THE BRIDGE // Issue 2 2017 13