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Sputnik: The Point Of The Space Race

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Beginning in 1935, NACA or the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics began to hire hundreds of women, white women to work as “computers”. As a computer you were responsible for performing mathematical equations and calculations by hand. It was a long, tedious job that played a huge role in aeronautics and during the brink of World War II would be in high demand. With the US wanting to become more aeronautical advanced and Roosevelt issuing Executive Order 8802, which banned "discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin" an opportunity for African American women to have jobs in such places as NACA became possible. During World War II the computer unit …show more content…
With the US making its name for itself through new innovations it would not let another country take its title and it seemed that’s what USSR was trying to. On October 4th 1957 the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit called “Sputnik”. The US felt threatened by sputnik not only was competition. It was a competition between the Soviet Union and United States that would ultimately result in so many breakthroughs in aerospace, such as getting the exact trajectories that would allow the United States to send first American John Glenn to orbit the …show more content…
When the words fade we hear a little voice and are introduced to what we soon will recognize as one of the main charters of the film Katherine Johnson. As young Katherine recites prime numbers while walking through the woods or identifies shapes by classification. Her parents are offered a opportunity that will change Katherines life forever. With her skills in math so advanced her teachers see no other choice but to send her to a school where her skills will thrive. With a money donation from teachers and fully paid scholarship to a school for the gifted the teacher directs her parents to leave, to give Katherine the education and shot she deserves. While showing a future scene at school for gifted we see scene of professor looking over at Katherine and advanced formula she’s solved and hear a voice over say, “In all my years of teaching I’ve never seen a mind like your daughter has”. “You have to go, you have to see what she becomes”. Providing a gateway to show the family leaving to give their daughter a opportunity and providing an opening for a flashforward to see who Katherine Johnson has

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