![]() Then it took until 1992 to fly the first female African-American astronaut, Mae Jemison, and until 2022 for Jessica Watkins to be the first Black woman on a long-duration mission.įortunately, things are changing. Black male astronaut Guion "Guy Bluford" was first to fly at NASA in 1983, 22 years after the first agency white male. To take a few examples: Black women engineers and mathematicians now known as " Hidden Figures" paid key planning roles in the early astronaut space program of the 1960s while facing segregation and discrimination. NASA is working on fixing historical inequity issues in the agency like this. Glover was the first long-duration Black astronaut in space in 2020-21, a far overdue milestone given NASA has been occupying the International Space Station permanently since 2000. NASA astronaut Victor Glover celebrates completing the first Black astronaut long-duration mission after returning to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule Resilience on May 2, 2021. Related: 'The Color of Space': Watch NASA's documentary celebrating Black space explorers for Juneteenth That's why and we should take ownership of it." "All of us should be able to celebrate these accomplishments," Glover added, "no matter what you look like, no matter how old you are, or where or when you come from. "That was the first time that seed was planted," Glover said, of the interest in science that led him to Naval aviation and eventually, the astronaut corps. Then he saw a shuttle launch on television when he was about 10 years old, in roughly 1985 or 1986. Glover made it to NASA after a lifetime of curiosity, encouraged by his parents he was born out of wedlock, he explained, but both his father and mother wanted him to pursue education. ![]() ![]() "We need to know Black history because it is one important facet of our story," current NASA astronaut Victor Glover said. The speakers at the Smithsonian acknowledged these issues while also pointing to drive, talent, community-building and other traits that unite African Americans and indeed, all of humanity. Numerous societal issues continue to hurt Black people today in fields as diverse as education and housing. Black History Month is a time for Americans to reflect on the successes and challenges the African-American population has faced over the centuries, from enslavement to discrimination to "Jim Crow" laws that enforced racial segregation.
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