Hidden Figures Fact-Check: What Joylette Coleman Confirmed About the True Story
By Chloe Bennett
One core element the film rendered accurately was astronaut John Glenn’s personal insistence on human verification. Prior to the February 20, 1962, launch of Friendship 7, NASA had transitioned orbital calculation workloads from human computers to mechanical IBM 7090 mainframes. The digital systems suffered frequent network interruptions and programming errors, which worried the astronauts who placed their lives in those machines.
Glenn famously told engineers to "get the girl to check the numbers," referring explicitly to Katherine Johnson. Joylette Coleman stated in retrospective interviews that her mother never took offense at the word "girl," which was standard shorthand for human computers of any race or age at the time.
The verification, however, did not occur as a dramatic cliffhanger while Glenn sat on the launch pad in Florida. The IBM computers had plotted trajectory coordinates across 11 tracking stations worldwide. Johnson worked around the clock for nearly two days, manually checking every spherical trigonometry equation on desktop calculating machines. When her numbers aligned perfectly with the machine outputs, Glenn received the go-ahead. Her calculations provided the exact re-entry angle needed to ensure the capsule would not burn up in the atmosphere or skip off into deep space.
Chloe Bennett explores the intersection of pop culture, streaming entertainment, digital trends, and contemporary lifestyle. Her weekly commentary reaches thousands of culture enthusiasts.
