Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

immediately. Even without the pressure
of the space race, even without the
mandate to beat the enemy. For Katherine
Johnson, curiosity always bested fear.
The Eagle, the lunar lander, issued
forth from the Apollo command module
at 4:00 p.m. The touchdown caused a
collective shiver. The crew was close,
so close. The world waited for the door
of the crab-like mechanical contraption
to open. It took four hours. Then, finally,
at 10:38 p.m.: sighs, applause,
exuberance, dumbstruck silence, from all
corners of the Earth, as Neil Armstrong
planted his foot on luna firma. The actual
landing had been the one part of the
mission that had been impossible to
rehearse prior to the actual moment—and
the most dangerous. The Apollo 11
astronauts had given the mission only a