Books like Reaching For The Moon by Katherine Johnson

Hidden Figures tells the true story of four African‑American mathematicians—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Christine Darden—who broke barriers at NASA’s Langley Research Center, proving that talent, not race or gender, powers scientific progress.

Katherine Johnson’s extraordinary mathematics guided NASA’s Apollo missions and saved Apollo 13’s crew, revealing her life as a pioneering African‑American woman in science.

The biography of Katherine Johnson, a pioneering African‑American mathematician whose hand‑calculated trajectories propelled NASA’s Mercury and Apollo programs, including the 1969 moon landing.

How does one go about organizing something as complicated as a strategic-missile or space-exploration program? Stephen B. Johnson here explores the answer -- systems management -- in a groundbreaking study that involves Air Force planners, scientists, technical specialists, and, eventually, bureaucrats. Taking a comparative approach, Johnson focuses on the theory, or intellectual history, of "systems engineering" as such, its origins in the Air Force's Cold War ICBM efforts, and its migration to not only NASA but the European Space Agency. Exploring the history and politics of aerospace development and weapons procurement, Johnson examines how scientists and engineers created the systems management process to coordinate large-scale technology development, and how managers and military officers gained control of that process. "Those funding the race demanded results," Johnson explains. "In response, development organizations created what few expected and what even fewer wanted -- a bureaucracy for innovation. To begin to understand this apparent contradiction in terms, we must first understand the exacting nature of space technologies and the concerns of those who create them."

A vibrant collection of biographies celebrating bold African‑American women who shaped history, from suffragists and civil‑rights leaders to pioneering artists and scientists.

Biography of Mamie 'Peanut' Johnson, one of only three women to play professional baseball in the Negro Leagues