List of African-American astronauts

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Some of NASA's first African-American astronauts including Dr. Ronald McNair, Guy Bluford and Fred Gregory from the class of 1978 selection of astronauts.

African-American astronauts are people who have either traveled into space or been part of an astronaut program.

African-American astronauts[edit]

Traveled into space[edit]

# Image Name
Birth date 		Note Missions (launch date) Sources
1 Guion Bluford.jpg Guion Bluford
November 22, 1942
United States 		First African-American astronaut in space [1]
2 Ronald mcnair.jpg Ronald McNair
October 21, 1950
†January 28, 1986
United States 		Died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster [1]
3 Gregory-f.jpg Frederick D. Gregory
January 7, 1941
United States 		First African American to pilot and command a Space Shuttle mission; acting Administrator of NASA, 2005 [1]
4 CharlesBolden.jpg Charles Bolden
August 19, 1946
United States 		Administrator of NASA, July 17, 2009 – January 20, 2017 [1]
5 Mae Jemison.jpg Mae Jemison
October 17, 1956
United States 		First African-American woman in space [1]
6 Bernard Anthony Harris Jr.jpg Bernard A. Harris Jr.
June 26, 1956
United States 		First African American to walk in space [1]
7 Winston scott.jpg Winston E. Scott
August 6, 1950
United States 		Veteran of three spacewalks [1]
8 Robert Curbeam.jpg Robert Curbeam
March 5, 1962
United States 		Veteran of seven spacewalks [1]
9 Michael P. Anderson.jpg Michael P. Anderson
December 25, 1959
†February 1, 2003
United States 		Died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster [1]
10 Stephanie D. Wilson.jpg Stephanie Wilson
September 27, 1966
United States 		[1]
11 Joan Higginbotham.jpg Joan Higginbotham
August 3, 1964
United States 		[1]
12 Alvin drew-2007.jpg Alvin Drew
November 5, 1962
United States 		Veteran of two spacewalks, February 28 and March 2, 2011 [1]
13 Leland melvin.jpg Leland D. Melvin
February 15, 1964
United States 		Associate Administrator for Education at NASA [1]
14 Robert Satcher.jpg Robert Satcher
September 22, 1965
United States 		EVA November 19 and November 23, 2009 [1]

Never traveled into space[edit]

Image Name
Birth date 		Note Sources
Robertlawrence.jpg Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.
October 2, 1935
†December 8, 1967
United States 		First African-American astronaut; selected for astronaut training in 1967 for the MOL program; died in an aircraft accident [2]
Livingston Holder Astronaut Training.jpg Livingston L. Holder, Jr.
September 29, 1956
United States 		USAF astronaut in the Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program [3]
Michael E Belt.jpg Michael E. Belt
September 9, 1957
United States 		Astronaut, payload specialist from TERRA SCOUT - US Army Project; retired January 12, 1991 [4]
Yvonne Cagle.jpg Yvonne Cagle
April 24, 1959
United States 		Astronaut [4]
Jeanette J. Epps.jpg Jeanette J. Epps
November 2, 1970
United States 		Astronaut
On January 5, 2016 NASA announced that Epps would become the first African-American space station crew member when she launched on her would-be first spaceflight in May 2018, as a flight engineer on Expedition 56, remaining on board for Expedition 57. On January 16, 2018, NASA announced that Epps had been replaced by her backup Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, due to unknown reasons, and has sparked various media attention. 		[4]
Victor J. Glover official portrait.jpg Victor J. Glover
April 30, 1976
United States 		Scheduled to fly on Expedition 62 on USCV-1 [5]
Jessica Watkins portrait.jpg Jessica Watkins
May 14, 1988
United States 		Astronaut candidate, NASA Astronaut Group 22 [6]

First African-American astronaut candidate[edit]

Image Name
Birth date 		Note Sources
Captain Edward J. Dwight Jr. in US Air Force.jpg Ed Dwight
September 9, 1933
United States 		Selected as the first African-American astronaut candidate in 1961; resigned from the Air Force in 1966 due to racial politics. [7]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "NASA's African-American Astronauts Fact Sheet" (PDF). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  2. ^ Oberg, James H. (2005-02-23). "The Unsung Astronaut". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 2011-03-07. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  3. ^ Hoffman, Sarah (March 7, 2019). "A Space Pioneer Charts A Course For Future Astronauts". KCTS9. Retrieved March 11, 2019. He became a satellite countdown controller, worked on classified missions and earned a position with the competitive Manned Spaceflight Engineer program. While training as an astronaut, he witnessed the faces of NASA’s space shuttle program shift to include women and minorities, along with the white men who first inspired him.
  4. ^ a b c Phillips, Kerri (February 8, 2012). "Celebrating Black History Month: NASA's African-American Astronauts". AmericaSpace. Retrieved March 11, 2019. Four other African-Americans were selected by NASA as astronauts that did not have the opportunity to fly in space: Livingston Holder, Michael E. Belt, Yvonne Cagle, and Jeanette J. Epps. Each of these dedicated people believed in the advancement of human knowledge and space exploration, and some made the ultimate sacrifice doing what they felt was worth the risk for this endeavor.
  5. ^ "Victor J. Glover, Jr. (Commander, U.S. Navy) NASA Astronaut". NASA. August 13, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  6. ^ Garcia, Mark (2017-06-06). "Astronaut Candidate Jessica Watkins". NASA. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
  7. ^ Brune, AM (May 28, 2015). "Ed Dwight shows 'the angst, all the emotions' of black heroes in sculpture". The Guardian. Retrieved February 23, 2019. Originally from Kansas City, he joined the US air force in 1953, where he served as a fighter pilot and was appointed by President John F Kennedy to train as the country’s first black astronaut. He left in 1966, he said, after racial politics forced him out of NASA and back into the regular officer corps.
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