We could not fail tells the inspiring largely unknown story of how shooting for the stars helped to overcome segregation on earthrichard paul and steven moss profile ten pioneer african american space workers whose stories illustrate the role nasa and the space program played in promoting civil rights they recount how these technicians mathematicians engineers and an astronaut candidate . We could not fail tells the inspiring largely unknown story of how shooting for the stars helped to overcome segregation on earthrichard paul and steven moss profile ten pioneer african american space workers whose stories illustrate the role nasa and the space program played in promoting civil rights they recount how these technicians mathematicians engineers and an astronaut candidate . We could not fail tells the inspiring largely unknown story of how shooting for the stars helped to overcome segregation on earth richard paul and steven moss profile ten pioneer african american space workers whose stories illustrate the role nasa and the space program played in promoting civil rights they recount how these technicians mathematicians engineers and an astronaut candidate surmounted barriers to move in some cases literally from the cotton fields to the launching pad . We could not fail tells the inspiring it was common knowledge in african american communities that johnson intended to use the space program to accomplish this goal once johnson found out that the republican party was interested in funding this program to beat the russians to the moon he thought this was a good opportunity to have a federal program that they could get blacks into to . We could not fail investigates the role of nasa as an equal opportunity employer during the height of the civil rights movement in the united states in the 1960sthe authors present the stories of little known african american men who were among nasas first black employees these men faced difficulties in job advancementfinding housing and downright indifference from white co workers