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African-American astronaut logged 700 miles in orbit
Monday, February 07, 2000
The Challenger lifted off Aug. 30, 1983, in the first night launch of a space shuttle. On board was Guion S. Bluford, the first African-American to fly in space.
Bluford was born Nov. 22, 1942, in Philadelphia, and at a very early age he became fascinated with flight. He decided he wanted to design and build airplanes. He enrolled at Penn State and graduated in 1964 with a degree in aerospace engineering.
Deciding that in order to build great planes he'd have to know how to fly them, he enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program. He went on to pilot training school and earned his Air Force wings in 1966. He was assigned to a fighter squadron in Vietnam, where he flew 144 combat missions.
Bluford later was assigned as a flight instructor in Texas. He went on to earn a master's degree and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He soon was working as a chief engineer, studying advanced flight concepts when he heard NASA was looking for new astronauts to fly the world's first reusable spacecraft. Bluford was accepted as an astronaut candidate in 1979 and assigned as a mission specialist for the eighth shuttle mission in 1983.
After that first historic trip to space, Bluford flew three more missions and logged some 700 hours in orbit. Upon retiring from NASA, he became vice president and general manager for an engineering company in Ohio. He also travels the country speaking to students about science and technology and encouraging them to follow their dreams.
- By John G. Radzilowicz, director, Henry Buhl Jr. Planetarium and Observatory
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