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In honor of Black History Month, a web page from NASA's Johnson Space Center commemorates the achievements of African-Americans in the space program. This page, which turned up after we searched on "african american astronaut," provides a list of African-American "firsts" in the space program, including the name of the first African-American in space -- Guion S. Bluford Jr. Our next search, on Bluford's full name, revealed more details about the decorated pilot and astronaut. Bluford, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, became a NASA astronaut in August 1979. He launched into space
on August 30, 1983, aboard the Challenger, on the Space Shuttle's third mission. He served on three more NASA missions and logged over 688 hours in space before leaving NASA in July 1993. Though Bluford was the first African-American to enter space, he was not the first African-American astronaut. That distinction belongs to Robert H. Lawrence Jr., who became an astronaut on June 10, 1967. Tragically, Lawrence never made it into space. A short time later, he was killed when his plane crashed during a training flight. Other notable African-Americans in the space program
include Bernard A. Harris Jr., the first African-American to walk in space, and Mae C. Jamison, the first African-American woman in space.
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