Dorothy Vaughan reads an article about Black female engineers and decides to apply to the Langley Laboratory for a mathematician position.

Dorothy Vaughan reports for her first day at the Langley Laboratory and begins work in the West Area Computing unit.

Coworker Miriam Mann repeatedly steals the "Colored Computers" cafeteria sign and slips it into her purse whenever it reappears.

Dorothy Vaughan is officially named head of the West Area Computers unit, becoming the first Black woman in a lab management role.

Mary Jackson joins the Langley Laboratory and begins working as a computer in Dorothy Vaughan's West Area Computing pool.

Mary Jackson begins working in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, testing airplanes designed to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Katherine Goble arrives at NACA and discovers that her new boss in West Area Computing is her former neighbor Dorothy Vaughan.

Katherine Goble's husband is diagnosed with an untreatable brain tumor and dies, leaving Katherine a single mother of three daughters.

The Soviet Union successfully launches Sputnik, the first satellite in space, marking the official start of the Space Age.

NACA is renamed NASA and the West Area Computing unit is dissolved as women are absorbed into specialized teams across the lab.

Katherine Goble persistently asks to attend the engineers' closed-door editorial meetings until the exasperated men finally allow her in.

Katherine Goble's trajectory research is published in a paper — the first in the Aerospace Mechanics Division to be signed by a woman.

Astronaut John Glenn refuses to launch until Katherine Johnson personally double-checks the electronic computer's orbital flight trajectory calculations.

John Glenn orbits Earth, survives a heat shield warning and a tense 14-minute communications blackout, and lands safely in the Atlantic.

Neil Armstrong steps onto the Moon's surface, completing the historic mission that Katherine Johnson's calculations helped make possible.

This pool follows the most significant milestones in the story of Black women computers at NACA and NASA, from Dorothy Vaughan's arrival at the Langley Laboratory to humanity's first steps on the Moon. Dorothy Vaughan rises to become the first Black woman in a management role at the lab, paving the way for the women who follow her. Mary Jackson joins the lab and specializes in supersonic flight, while Katherine Goble comes aboard and eventually works her way into the space program. The Soviet Union's Sputnik launch transforms NACA into NASA and shifts the entire agency's focus to the Space Race. Katherine Johnson becomes a key figure in the Mercury and Apollo programs, and astronaut John Glenn trusts her calculations above the electronic computer before his historic orbital flight. The pool ends with Neil Armstrong's Moon landing, the culmination of decades of extraordinary work by Katherine and the women who came before her.

The headline milestones from Dorothy's first day at Langley to Neil Armstrong's steps on the Moon.

Dorothy Vaughan graduates as her high school's valedictorian, earns a math scholarship, and becomes a teacher after multiple school closings.

Katherine Goble is selected as one of three Black students asked to desegregate West Virginia State College's graduate mathematics program.

Dorothy Vaughan commutes to Langley daily on segregated buses, forced to sit behind the Colored Line or stand if the white section is full.

Dorothy Vaughan attends aeronautics and wind tunnel classes after work two nights a week to better understand the engineers' research.

Dorothy Vaughan brings her four children to join her in Hampton after a full year of living apart from them.

World War II ends and many female Langley workers receive layoff notices, leaving Dorothy Vaughan uncertain about her future at the lab.

A test team breaks the sound barrier for the first time, and two female computers involved in the project are promoted to junior engineers.

Dorothy Vaughan's section head suffers a mental health crisis and Dorothy is named acting head of West Area Computing.

Mary Jackson asks white coworkers where the colored bathroom is located and they laugh at her, unable to direct her.

Mary Jackson stands her ground when her manager insists her wind tunnel calculations are wrong, and is ultimately proven correct.

Katherine Goble arrives at the Flight Research Division and a white male coworker immediately stands up and walks away from her.

Dorothy Vaughan reinvents herself as a computer programmer to stay ahead of the new room-sized electronic computing machines at the lab.

Mary Jackson helps her son Levi win the local soap box derby using her aerodynamics knowledge, making him the first Black boy to win.

Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel to space, sharply increasing the pressure on NASA's team to catch up.

Three astronauts die during the Apollo 1 mission, but NASA refuses to abandon its goal of landing humans on the Moon.

This pool covers the essential supporting events that shaped the lives and careers of the women at the heart of the story. It begins with Dorothy Vaughan's early life as a determined educator and Katherine Goble's unexpected role in desegregating a graduate program, before following Dorothy through the daily humiliations of her segregated commute and working life at Langley. Events like the end of World War II and the breaking of the sound barrier reveal how the broader world constantly reshaped the women's job security and opportunities. Mary Jackson and Katherine Goble each face sharp moments of discrimination that quietly shift their trajectories toward greater responsibility. The pool also captures Dorothy's crucial pivot to computer programming, Mary's joyful soap box derby victory with her son, and the Soviet space milestones that added urgency to everything NASA did. It ends with the Apollo 1 tragedy, a sobering reminder that the road to the Moon was lined with painful setbacks alongside its triumphs.

The personal struggles, setbacks, and behind-the-scenes moments that shaped these women's careers.

Dorothy Vaughan initially dismisses the Langley Laboratory job advertisement, assuming the position was only intended for white women.

Dorothy Vaughan receives a Langley job offer paying more than twice her teacher's salary but must leave her four children behind to accept.

Dorothy Vaughan discovers she has joined one of the world's most exclusive groups — a room full of college-educated Black women working as mathematicians.

Mary Jackson's supervisor in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel is so impressed by her work that he encourages her to train as an engineer.

Mary Jackson requests and receives special permission to attend engineering training classes held at an all-white high school.

Mary Jackson attends her first class at the all-white school and is shocked to find it is just as run-down as the Black schools.

Dorothy Vaughan insists that Katherine Goble's Flight Research Division supervisor give Katherine a full-time position and a well-deserved raise.

After her husband's death, Katherine Goble refuses to surrender to grief and insists her family move forward with discipline and purpose.

Katherine Goble joins the Space Task Group working on Project Mercury, determined to play a role in sending a human into space.

Christine Mann participates in civil rights sit-ins and voter registration drives near the Langley Laboratory while studying at Hampton Institute.

Katherine Goble meets a man named James Johnson at choir practice and the two fall in love and marry.

Astronaut Alan Shepard launches on the United States' first manned space mission, with approximately 45 million Americans watching on television.

President Kennedy publicly declares that the United States will put a human on the Moon before the end of the decade.

Christine Mann Darden meets Katherine Johnson at church and begins working at NASA as part of the next generation of Black women.

Katherine Johnson calculates the precise relationship between the orbiting command module and the Moon lander, calling it the highlight of her career.

This pool focuses on the turning points, discoveries, and transformative personal choices that defined each woman's journey. It opens with Dorothy Vaughan's hesitation before applying to Langley and her arrival revelation that she had joined an extraordinary community of educated Black women. Mary Jackson's story pivots when her supervisor recognizes her engineering potential and she fights for the right to attend classes at an all-white school, only to be surprised by what she finds there. Katherine Goble's resilience is tested by her first husband's death, and her stubborn persistence eventually wins her a place in the Space Task Group. Christine Darden's emergence as a new generation's voice is captured through her civil rights activism near the very laboratory where her predecessors work. The pool closes with Alan Shepard's launch, Kennedy's bold Moon declaration, Christine's arrival at NASA, and Katherine's career-defining lunar calculations, showing how individual turning points added up to one of history's greatest achievements.

The quiet decisions, personal revelations, and pivotal moments that changed the course of these women's lives.