The Calculating Stars (2018)

Elma York's mathematical skill becomes vital when a catastrophe accelerates an alternative 1950s space programme. Being qualified does not spare her the pressures of anxiety, public performance or discrimination. Kowal makes the technical work and the people permitted to do it part of the same story. Moderate technical detail, a supportive marriage and an extended struggle for access distinguish this from a solitary-genius adventure. The Lady Astronaut sequence begins here.