They Had a Dream

August 28, 2008

Millions of Americans tuned in to watch Illinois senator Barack Obama make US history by accepting the Democratic Party's nomination as its presidential candidate. Regardless of one's political leanings, it is undeniably a proud moment in our nation's history. It shows how far we've progressed. By coincidence, it was also the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech; no doubt King would have savored this moment.

Heck, the 2008 presidential race also brought us the first serious woman contender for that honor: Hillary Clinton, with her "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling." In honor of Obama, King, Clinton, Michelle Obama, and so many others who fought the good fight for equality and civil rights, I thought I'd highlight a few key "firsts" in NASA's space program.

First African-American Man in Space
Guion S. Bluford, Jr .

Born in 1942, Bluford grew up in Philadelphia, the son of an engineer and a teacher who encouraged him to reach for the stars. And he did, even though a high school teacher told him he just wasn't college material, and urged him to learn a trade. It was a common approach in those days to discourage the aspirations of young African-Americans, but Bluford didn't heed his teacher's advice.

Instead, he got an undergrad degree in aerospace engineering from Penn State University in 1964, joined the ROTC and enrolled in flight school. While in the Air Force, he flew 144 combat missions, 65 of them over North Vietnam, before spending five years as a flight instructor at the Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

Bluford was something of a lifelong student, and ended up getting a master's degree and PhD (also in aerospace engineering) from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1978. That was the same year he was accepted into NASA's astronaut training program, becoming a full-fledged astronaut a year later. In 1983, he won his place in history when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. (The first black man in space was Cuban, a Col. Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, who flew on the Soviet mission Salyut 6 in 1980.)

He served on three more shuttle missions before retiring from NASA and the Air Force in 1993. Not surprisingly, he once again went back to school, earning a master's in business administration from the University of Houston, Clear Lake, in 1987. And now he's vice president and general manager of the Science and Engineering Group in the Aerospace Sector of Federal Data Corporation in Maryland. (You can read a recent Q&A with Bluford about his place in space history here.)

First African-American Astronaut
Robert Lawrence, Jr.

Bluford was not, however, the very first African-American astronaut. That honor belongs to Air Force Major Robert Lawrence, Jr., who for decades languished as NASA's forgotten man. Born in 1935, he grew up in Chicago and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Bradley University before joining the Air Force. Almost a decade later, he earned a PhD in physical chemistry from Ohio State University -- which he accomplished while still serving in the Air Force.

In fact, his test flights were instrumental in researching the steep-descent gliding concept later employed with the space shuttles. In June 1967, he was named to the Air Force's manned orbiting laboratory program (eventually incorporated into NASA). Alas, he was killed six months later during a training exercise when the F-104 fighter jet he was in crashed. Lawrence was the instructor pilot helping train a new pilot in the steep-descent glide technique. The rookie didn't quite pull it off, and the plane crashed and caught fire. The trainee survived, but by the time Lawrence's seat ejected, the aircraft had turned on its side. He was ejected at too low a trajectory, hit the ground hard, and was killed instantly.

Lawrence received the Purple Heart posthumously, but his surviving family members fought for 30 years to get his name inscribed on the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, honoring astronauts killed in the line of duty. He met NASA's criteria, but not that of the Air Force, apparently -- technically, he was never officially declared an astronaut, not until December 8, 1997, when his name was finally inscribed on the Space Mirror. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago, Illinois, is the one who persuaded the Air Force to reconsider, describing their long-standing refusal as "a classic case of institutionalized racism." Lawrence is a forgotten man no more.

First (American) Woman in Space
Sally Ride

Technically, the very first woman in space was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who flew aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963. But the first American woman in space -- and while eager to give Tereshkova due props, we are highlighting NASA milestones in this post -- was Sally Ride. Ride originally wanted to be a professional tennis player as a teenager in Los Angeles, California, but decided she just didn't have the chops and ended up earning undergrad degrees in physics and English from Stanford. She stayed on for graduate studies in astrophysics, and that's when she heard about NASA's search for astronauts. She applied, and became one of six women (out of more than 8000 applicants) to be accepted.

After completing her training in 1979, she served as a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983 -- making her the first American woman in space -- and again in 1984. After the shuttle exploded in January 1986, she left mission training to become a member of the Presidential Commission to investigate the accident, eventually retiring from NASA in 1987.

She's now director of of the California Space Institute and a professor of physics at University of California, San Diego. She also founded an organization called Imaginary Lines to encourage young girls interested in science, math and technology; the Sally Ride Club is part of that, reaching out to elementary and middle school girls across the country.

And that BA in English came in handy, too. Ride has written several children's books, including The Third Planet. I had the honor of meeting Ride several years ago at a conference, when that book received a science writing award from the American Institute of Physics. She signed my copy of the book, made a bit of light chitchat, and pretty much made my year.

First African-American Woman Astronaut/First African-American Woman in Space
Mae C. Jemison

Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama, in 1956; her parents were a maintenance worker and a teacher. The family moved to Chicago when she was 3, and it was there she finished high school at 16. Jemison went on to earn an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Stanford, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Cornell. (On top of all that, she is fluent in Russian, Japanese and Swahili, very nearly earned a second bachelor's degree in African-American studies, and trained in dance and choreography -- truly a Renaissance woman!)

The space bug didn't bite right away. While in medical school, Jemison spent time in Cuba, Kenya, and Thailand providing medical care, and joined the Peace Corps afterward, working in Sierra Leone and Liberia.  Then she worked as a doctor in Los Angeles before taking on more graduate studies, this time in engineering. In 1987, NASA accepted her into its astronaut training program. In 1992, she served as mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Endeavor, acting as co-investigator on a bone cell research experiment flown on that mission.

Jemison also uttered one of my favorite quotations: "I had to learn very early not to limit myself due to others' limited imaginations. I have learned these days never to limit anyone else due to my limited imagination."

Each one of these remarkable people had a dream, worked hard to achieve it, and shattered traditional social barriers in the process. Here's to many more years of historic moments and unlimited imagination.

Photos (top to bottom): 1. Guion Bluford, Jr. Source: NASA. 2. Robert Lawrence, Jr. Source: Wikimedia Commons. 3. Sally Ride. Source: NASA. 4. Mae C. Jemison. Source: NASA.

Comments

[Mike B.]

Mae Jemison is related to my half-sister. That's all. I'm just proud of that.