Blog 5

Guion Bluford

Guion S. Bluford Jr. is historically known as the first African American to ever go to space. Born in Philadelphia on November 22, 1942, Bluford had an impressive career not only for NASA but in the United States Air Force and the aerospace field in general. After attending pilot training and receiving his wings from William’s Air Force Base in 1966, Guion Bluford went on to serve as the pilot of an F-4C Phantom crew in the Vietnam War. He then went on to serve as a key instructor in the T-38 – the first supersonic training jet to enter service. In his career, Bluford flew as the pilot in command of many other aircraft, notably the F-5A/B, the Lockheed U-2 spy plane, and the F-15 Eagle. Bluford was selected to be an astronaut in 1979, chosen out of over 1000 other candidates.

On August 30^th, 1983, Bluford made history in becoming the first African American to journey to space (Note: While Bluford is in fact the first African American to go to space, the first person of African descendance to go space was Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez – a Cuban cosmonaut). Bluford made the journey aboard the Challenger Space Shuttle on STS-8. On this mission, Bluford and the rest of the STS-8 crew completed a number of tasks such as launching the Indian National Satellite, performing multiple experiments, collecting biophysical data, and operating the Canadian SRMS “Canadarm”. STS-8 completed 98 orbits in 145 hours before returning to Earth on September 5, 1983.

Bluford went on to complete 3 other flights aboard the STS bringing his mission total to 4 spaceflights. He retired from NASA and the USAF in July 1993. Bluford is currently the acting president of Aerospace Technology, based in Cleveland, OH. And in 2010, Guion S. Bluford Jr. was inducted to the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame.

https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/bluford-gs.html