August 30 - Guion Bluford Becomes the First African-American in Space

This Day in History: 30 August 2020

 

30 August 1983

 

37 years ago, today, Guion S. Bluford became the first African American to travel into space when the space shuttle 'Challenger' lifted off on its third mission. It was the first night launch of the space shuttle, and many people stayed up late to watch the spacecraft take off. The 'Challenger' spent six days in space, where Bluford and his fellow crew members launched a communications satellite for India's government, conducted scientific experiments and tested the shuttle's robotic arm. The shuttle landed back in California on September 5, ending the most flawless shuttle mission of the time.

 

Bluford, from a young age, had been fascinated by flight and decided he wanted to design and build airplanes. In 1964, he graduated from Penn State with a degree in aerospace engineering and entered the US Air Force a year later. He was assigned to a fighter squadron in Vietnam, where he flew 144 combat missions. After his combat service, he became a flight instructor, and received a master's degree in aerospace engineering in the 1970s. In 1979, he was accepted into the US astronaut program, in total logging 700 hours in orbit. After returning from NASA, he became vice president and general manager of an engineering company in Ohio.

 

Want to find out more about the life of Guion S. Bluford? Click here for more information, or here for more about more African-American astronauts.