Hidden Figures: The secret rocket.

 

Fun movie, and the director is on record saying he made sure it’s accurate. Really? Let’s look at one element in the story. The Atlas rocket was first launched in 1958. The movie begins in circa 1961. And supposedly the Atlas rocket is secret. Remember that scene? The NASA boss grills the woman trajectory analyst over how she knew about the Atlas…because it’s secret and the name Atlas was redacted. There probably were classified elements about the Atlas but the rocket was not a secret. How do you keep a rocket, a rather large thing, secret? Throw a sheet over it? Face palm moment.