Q 01/05

Which 1957 Soviet launch pulled Johnson's flight research team into the new field of spaceflight?

A) Vostok

B) Sputnik

C) Soyuz

D) Luna

Answer · why

B) Sputnik

Sputnik redirected her career: the engineers she worked with became the core of America's first space team, and with no textbook on spaceflight to con...

Q 02/05

Which astronaut refused to fly unless Johnson personally verified the computer's numbers for his orbit?

A) Gus Grissom

B) Neil Armstrong

C) Alan Shepard

D) John Glenn

Answer · why

D) John Glenn

John Glenn told engineers to "get the girl" and have her rerun the orbital equations by hand; if she said the numbers were good, he said, he was ready...

Q 03/05

Whose 2016 nonfiction book was the film Hidden Figures based on?

A) Isabel Wilkerson

B) Nathalia Holt

C) Margot Lee Shetterly

D) Walter Isaacson

Answer · why

C) Margot Lee Shetterly

Margot Lee Shetterly knew the setting first-hand: she grew up in Hampton, Virginia, the daughter of a research scientist at Langley, where Johnson spe...

Q 04/05

Who played Johnson in Hidden Figures?

A) Viola Davis

B) Taraji P. Henson

C) Janelle Monáe

D) Octavia Spencer

Answer · why

B) Taraji P. Henson

Taraji P. Henson appeared alongside the real Johnson at the 2017 Oscars, where the audience rose to give the retired mathematician a standing ovation.

Q 05/05

Which president awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian honour?

A) Barack Obama

B) Bill Clinton

C) Donald Trump

D) George W. Bush

Answer · why

A) Barack Obama

Barack Obama gave her the medal in November 2015, the year before the book and film Hidden Figures told her story to the wider public.