Guion Bluford, in full Guion Stewart Bluford, Jr., (born November 22, 1942, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.), astronaut who was the first African American launched into space.
Bluford received an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1964 and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he trained as a fighter pilot. He flew 144 combat missions during the Vietnam War. In 1978 he earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Bluford was one of 35 individuals selected in 1978 from 10,000 applicants in NASA’s first competition to become space shuttle astronauts. On August 30, 1983, he rode into Earth orbit on the shuttle orbiter Challenger on the STS-8 mission. The crew deployed INSAT-1B, an Indian communication satellite. The shuttle returned to Earth on September 5.
Bluford’s next mission, STS-61A, launched on October 30, 1985, and carried in its cargo bay Spacelab D-1, a scientific laboratory funded by West Germany. Bluford and five other astronauts performed more than 70 experiments in Spacelab. STS-61A flew eight astronauts, which is still the record for the most people on a single spaceflight, and was Challenger’s final mission before it exploded shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986.
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Tuesday, August 30th 2022 at 7:19PM
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