This book tells the story of NASA from the perspective of its unacknowledged Black female employees, who took computing jobs at a wartime laboratory and assumed responsibility for humankind's 'giant leap' into space.

On July 21, 1969, two men walked on the moon for the first time. A couple of decades earlier, in an inconspicuous room of the Langley Research Center, a group of Black women began careers that would make that achievement possible.

Margot Lee Shetterly is an author and founder of the Human Computer Project, which archives the work of female computers and mathematicians who worked at NASA and its predecessor, NACA.

Shetterly was born in Hampton, Virginia, a month before the moon landing. Her father worked as an engineer at Langley, at a time when 1% of engineers were Black.

Hidden Figures details the early years of NACA and NASA, shining a light on the unsung Black women who battled widespread racism and sexism to contribute to America's greatest scientific triumph.