Final answer:
Katherine faces issues in keeping up with the necessary data for the Friendship 7 mission calculations because she is unable to attend the Pentagon briefings, a situation underscoring the time's gender and racial challenges.
Step-by-step explanation:
Katherine has problems keeping up with the data needed for the calculations to return Friendship 7 to Earth because she cannot attend the Pentagon briefings. The obstacles Katherine faces are not due to a lack of understanding of the math involved, but rather accessibility and availability of crucial information which is discussed in these briefings. This fictional scenario highlights issues related to gender and racial barriers during a period when such information was often inaccessible to women and people of color, such as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who worked for NASA during the Space Race.