Three, two, one ... liftoff on the trailer for Hidden Figures, Theodore Melfi’s biopic of the black female mathematicians whose work at Nasa helped the US win the space race.

Starring Octavia Spencer, Taraji P Henson and Janelle Monáe and based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures follows the life story of Katherine Johnson (Henson), a physicist who began her career as one of the administration’s first “computers” – female Nasa staff who were responsible for calculating the results of wind tunnel tests.

Johnson went on to calculate the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard – the first American in space – and supplied some of the theory that ensured the success of the Apollo moon landing. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2015. Spencer and Monáe play Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, brilliant mathematicians who likewise stood out from Nasa’s largely white staff.

From the trailer, it looks as though Melfi’s film will chart a course between civil-rights drama and workplace comedy, with emphasis put on the womens’ struggle against the white male perception of them. Their mistreatment is presented most obviously in the scene where a white-collar Joe dumps his trash can into the arms of Johnson, assuming she’s the cleaning lady. Elsewhere, a cop who pulls the friends over remarks that he “had no idea Nasa hired ... ” “There’s quite a few women in the space programme, sir,” Spencer’s character curtly replies.

Hidden Figures, which also stars Kevin Costner and Kirsten Dunst, will be released on 13 January.

