Jump to content

List of African-American astronauts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from List of black astronauts)

The first three African Americans to travel into space – Ron McNair, Guy Bluford and Fred Gregory

African-American astronauts are Americans of African descent who have been part of an astronaut program, whether or not they have traveled into space. African-Americans who have been passengers on space-tourist flights are also included in this article, although there is dispute over whether such passengers become "astronauts."[1]

African-American astronauts

[edit]

Traveled into space

[edit]
# Images Names &
Birth dates 		Notes Missions & launch dates Sources
1 Guion Bluford
November 22, 1942 		First African-American astronaut in space [2]
2 Ronald McNair
October 21, 1950
†January 28, 1986 		First Baháʼí in space; died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster [2]
3 Frederick D. Gregory
January 7, 1941 		First African American to pilot and command a Space Shuttle mission; acting Administrator of NASA, 2005 [2]
4 Charles Bolden
August 19, 1946 		Administrator of NASA, July 17, 2009 – January 20, 2017 [2]
5 Mae Jemison
October 17, 1956 		First African-American woman in space [2]
6 Bernard A. Harris Jr.
June 26, 1956 		First African American to walk in space [2]
7 Winston E. Scott
August 6, 1950 		Veteran of three spacewalks [2]
8 Robert Curbeam
March 5, 1962 		Veteran of seven spacewalks [2]
9 Michael P. Anderson
December 25, 1959
†February 1, 2003 		Died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster [2]
10 Stephanie Wilson
September 27, 1966 		[2]
11 Joan Higginbotham
August 3, 1964 		[2]
12 Alvin Drew
November 5, 1962 		Veteran of two spacewalks, February 28 and March 2, 2011 [2]
13 Leland D. Melvin
February 15, 1964 		Associate Administrator for Education at NASA [2]
14 Robert Satcher
September 22, 1965 		EVA November 19 and November 23, 2009 [2]
15 Victor J. Glover
April 30, 1976 		Joined ISS Expedition 64 as first African-American on an ISS Expedition [3][4]
16 Sian Proctor
March 28, 1970 		First African American female Spacecraft Pilot, as part of Inspiration4. First African American commercial Astronaut.
17 Michael Strahan
November 21, 1971 		First African American space tourist
18 Jessica Watkins
May 14, 1988 		First African American woman to be an ISS expedition crew member
19 Jaison Robinson
September 25, 1980
20 Jeanette J. Epps
November 2, 1970 		On August 4, 2023, NASA announced that Epps would join SpaceX Crew-8 that launched to space on March 4, 2024.[5] [6]
21 Ed Dwight
September 9, 1933 		Considered as the first African-American astronaut candidate, Ed Dwight made it to the second round of an Air Force program from which NASA selected astronauts, but was not selected by NASA to be an astronaut. Resigned from the Air Force in 1966 due to racial politics. In May, 2024, Dwight flew on a Blue Origin space tourist launch that traveled more than 100 km above Earth's surface, becoming at age 90 the oldest person to have flown to space. [7][8]

Never traveled into space

[edit]
Image Name
Birth date 		Note Sources
Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.
October 2, 1935
†December 8, 1967 		First African-American astronaut; selected for astronaut training in 1967 for the MOL program; died in an aircraft accident [9]
Livingston L. Holder Jr.
September 29, 1956 		USAF astronaut in the Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program [10]
Michael E. Belt
September 9, 1957 		Astronaut, payload specialist from TERRA SCOUT – US Army Project; retired January 12, 1991. Although he did not fly any shuttle missions during his time as an astronaut, he was the back-up payload specialist to Thomas J. Hennen for the STS-44 mission which deployed a military satellite, undergoing 9 months of astronaut training for the role[11] He was selected as an astronaut through the US Army's Terra Scout program which was created specifically to support STS-44.[12] [6]
Yvonne Cagle
April 24, 1959 		In NASA management [6]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  5. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  6. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  7. ^ We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, Chapter 5, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2015, pp. 86-104
  8. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  9. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  10. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  11. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
  12. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2083: attempt to index a boolean value.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_African-American_astronauts&oldid=1247937639"