How many African American astronauts have threre been in the space program?!?!?
Major Robert Lawrence was the first African-American selected to be an astronaut. He was selected to be an astronaut in a proposed Air Force space program called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. Major Lawrence died in a plane crash during a training mission in 1967, however. This occurred before he had an opportunity to fly into space. Note that the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program eventually was canceled. Guion Bluford was the first African-American astronaut to orbit the Earth. He was born November 22, 1942, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was also a colonel in the U.S. Air Force. He flew as a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Challenger from August 30 to September 5, 1983. This mission was called STS-8. It was the first night launch of a shuttle, as well as the first night landing. Guion Bluford also flew on three other shuttle missions: STS-61A, STS-39, and STS-53. He is currently the vice president and general manager of an engineering company in Maryland. Ronald McNair w
