PIONEER SPIRIT Katherine Johnson and her fellow black mathematicians overcame oppression and discrimination to help put Americans in space
NASA X3, GETTY X1
John Glenn, one of the Mercury Seven astronauts, prepares to go into space and do something no American has done before – orbit the Earth.
NASA has planned the flight for months, with every detail meticulously checked and re-checked, rigorous testing carried out on the spacecraft, Friendship 7, and newly installed computers running the tens of thousands of complex calculations.