McNair was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. McNair was killed along with six other crew members when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch from the Kennedy Space Center. McNair was assigned to act as a mission specialist on STS 51-L. This mission marked the first flight of the Manned Maneuvering Unit and the first use of the Canadian arm, which was operated by McNair, to position EVA crewman around the Challenger payload bay. On his first mission he acted as a mission specialist on STS 41-B in 1984. McNair was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. McNair earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from North Carolina A&T State University in 1971 and a Ph.D. Ronald McNair, born in Lake City, South Carolina, was the second African-American to orbit the Earth. He became a NASA astronaut in 1979 and completed four space flights (STS-8, STS 61-A, STS-39, and STS-53) as a mission specialist, logging over 688 hours in space according to his NASA biography. As a member of the United States Air Force, Bluford earned his pilot wings in 1966. Bluford also earned a master of business administration from the University of Houston, Clear Lake in 1987. in aerospace engineering with a minor in laser physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1978. Bluford received his bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1964, a master of science degree with distinction in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1974, and a Ph.D. The first African-American in space was Philadelphia native and United States Air Force Colonel, Guion “Guy” Bluford, Jr. In 1967, Major Lawrence was tragically killed in a plane crash during a training mission and did not get the opportunity to fly in space.
He was selected to be an astronaut in a proposed Air Force space program called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. Major Robert Lawrence was the first African-American selected for astronaut training by NASA. Read on for a short piece on each of these heroes. From Guion “Guy” Bluford to Ronald McNair, these courageous Americans made significant contributions to human space exploration. Photo Credit: NASAįebruary is Black History Month, or National African-American History Month, and here at AmericaSpace we are celebrating the achievements of African-American astronauts in the United States Space Program.
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