Character mistake: A TV news announcer describes Alan Shepard's first manned launch into space as him being lifted to "an altitude of 116 miles per hour." That's not an altitude, that's a speed. It should have just been "116 miles."
Continuity mistake: When Katherine is working out the math in the conference room for John Glenn's start off to the Bahamas there is no chalk or pencils on the desk, but they reappear when Al Harrison hands Katherine the chalk. (01:23:40)
Factual error: The green car that the 3 ladies are always in has a shot where you can see the brand of tires being a Hankook Optimo. This was in 1961 and these radial tires didn't exist yet.
Factual error: In one scene in the car (a 1957 Chevrolet), someone turns on the radio. The sound from the radio is heard immediately. This would only happen in a transistor radio. The radio in that year Chevy was a tube radio, and would need time to warm up before any sound was heard.
Factual error: The movie takes place in 1961 but the police car escorting the women to work is a 1964 Galaxie 500.
Factual error: In the conference room Katherine is at the board working out of the re-entry figures. She begins by converting 17544 mph to 25371 feet per second. The correct answer is 25731, an error of just over 1 percent in the first line of her calculations. She persists with the error but, contrary to the calculations she's presented, she gives the answer that she would have obtained had she not been working with the wrong figures. She then says that her obtained answer converts to 2990 miles, which it doesn't. (01:34:50)
Continuity mistake: When Katherine realises she can use Euler's Method to calculate how to bring John Glenn safely back to earth, she is seen wearing a wristwatch when she's at the chalkboard. The watch is not on her when she leaves to get a book about Euler's Method. It reappears when she's back at the chalkboard.
Factual error: The truck that drives John Glenn to the launch pad is an M939 series 5 ton, which did not go into service until 1982.
Factual error: The eight stripe IBM logo is shown on a portfolio. That logo did not exist until 1972.
Factual error: During this era (I was there), nearly everyone (myself excluded) smoked like chimneys, and engineers in the office scene were no exception. All depictions of them laboring over their slide rules should have, realistically, been seen through a thick haze of cigarette smoke.
Revealing mistake: When the ladies are being escorted by the police to NASA, their Chevy is in park.
Factual error: When they are watching the video of Yuri Gagarin's space flight (April of 1961), the announcer describes the time as "UTC." The official abbreviation of UTC and the official English name of Coordinated Universal Time was not adopted until 1967. They would have described it as "GMT" (Greenwich Mean Time).
Factual error: In the conference room scene Katherine presents the landing point, orally and in writing, as 5.0667° N and 77.33° W then indicates this is the target landing point in the area of the Bahamas "give or take 20 square miles." However, this latitude and longitude is actually on the Pacific coast of Colombia - about 1300 miles from the Bahamas and on the other side of Central America. (01:36:00)
Continuity mistake: In a scene where Katherine is writing on the big chalkboard, calculating the reentry spot (or something similar) for Friendship 7, her left hand is shown with an engagement ring. Her boyfriend doesn't propose until after this scene. You only see it for a second.
Factual error: When character Mary Jackson was appealing to Judge in court and sweet-talked him by mentioning his college that he graduated from George Mason, George Mason didn't exist until after 1957 and the movie setting was 1961-1962, which wouldn't be enough time for the character to graduate and become a judge by then. (01:00:00 - 01:05:00)
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie when the car is broken down you can see either a whole bunch of cows are in the field through the passenger window. When Dorothy starts the car with the screwdriver the cows are gone. (00:03:10 - 00:05:54)
Factual error: In at least two places in the film an IBM Selectric is used. They are: (a) A room at the beginning of the movie where typewriters are shown; (b) Near the end when Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) is typing up her report. The Selectric was introduced on July 31, 1961 (the year most of the movie takes place). It is impossible for it to have been used during the first scene as that takes place prior to Shephard's flight, which was on May 5, 1961. Glenn's flight in Friendship 7 took place on February 2, 1962. So the Selectric may have been used by Johnson at that time, but it is extremely unlikely. IBM had expected to sell 20,000 in the first 6 months and had orders (not deliveries) for 80,000 of them by the end of 1961. They were rare. NASA would not have gotten one, as law offices and similar business were IBM's bread and butter.
Continuity mistake: When John Glenn is attempting re entry, Dorothy Vaughn is driving out to the beach/country and she stops the car near a barn where there is a dark and creamy two tone car parked. The scene cuts straight back to the city to see the other girls watching re entry and the exact same two tone car is parked on the side of the road.
Factual error: When Colonel Jackson comes to town to organize a National Guard unit, he is wearing the Army Green military uniform. It only has the branch insignia (infantry) and the US lapel. It has no name tag, no shoulder insignia showing what unit he was assigned to, no shoulder unit crests and no award ribbons. A person with that rank must have been in the Armed Forces at least 16-18 years and no ribbons?
Continuity mistake: When Atlas is launched, Catherine stands in the control room next to the person who has radio contact with Glen. There are three different takes from the same camera angle, and in the last one, Catherine is not standing next to the radio person. It's only a few seconds apart. (01:44:02)
