List of African-American astronauts

The first three African Americans to travel into space – Ronald McNair, Guion Bluford and Fred Gregory

African-American astronauts are Americans of African descent who have either traveled into space or been part of an astronaut program.

African-American astronauts[]

Traveled into space[]

#	Name Birth date	Note	Missions (launch date)	Sources
1	Guion Bluford November 22, 1942	First African-American astronaut in space	STS-8 (August 30, 1983) STS-61-A (October 30, 1985) STS-39 (April 28, 1991) STS-53 (December 2, 1992)	^[1]
2	Ronald McNair October 21, 1950 †January 28, 1986	Died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster	STS-41-B (February 3, 1984) STS-51-L (January 28, 1986)	^[1]
3	Frederick D. Gregory January 7, 1941	First African American to pilot and command a Space Shuttle mission; acting Administrator of NASA, 2005	STS-51-B (April 29, 1985) STS-33 (November 22, 1989) STS-44 (November 24, 1991)	^[1]
4	Charles Bolden August 19, 1946	Administrator of NASA, July 17, 2009 – January 20, 2017	STS-61-C (January 12, 1986) STS-31 (April 24, 1990) STS-45 (March 24, 1992) STS-60 (February 3, 1994)	^[1]
5	Mae Jemison October 17, 1956	First African-American woman in space	STS-47 (September 12, 1992)	^[1]
6	Bernard A. Harris Jr. June 26, 1956	First African American to walk in space	STS-55 (April 26, 1993) STS-63 (February 3, 1995)	^[1]
7	Winston E. Scott August 6, 1950	Veteran of three spacewalks	STS-72 (January 11, 1996) STS-87 (November 19, 1997)	^[1]
8	Robert Curbeam March 5, 1962	Veteran of seven spacewalks	STS-85 (August 7, 1997) STS-98 (February 7, 2001) STS-116 (December 9, 2006)	^[1]
9	Michael P. Anderson December 25, 1959 †February 1, 2003	Died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster	STS-89 (January 22, 1998) STS-107 (January 16, 2003)	^[1]
10	Stephanie Wilson September 27, 1966		STS-121 (July 4, 2006) STS-120 (October 23, 2007) STS-131 (April 5, 2010)	^[1]
11	Joan Higginbotham August 3, 1964		STS-116 (December 9, 2006)	^[1]
12	Alvin Drew November 5, 1962	Veteran of two spacewalks, February 28 and March 2, 2011	STS-118 (August 8, 2007) STS-133 (February 24, 2011)	^[1]
13	Leland D. Melvin February 15, 1964	Associate Administrator for Education at NASA	STS-122 (February 7, 2008) STS-129 (November 16, 2009)	^[1]
14	Robert Satcher September 22, 1965	EVA November 19 and November 23, 2009	STS-129 (November 16, 2009)	^[1]
15	Victor J. Glover April 30, 1976	Joined ISS Expedition 64 as first African-American on an ISS Expedition	SpaceX Crew-1 (November 15, 2020)	^[2]^[3]

Never traveled into space[]

Name Birth date	Note	Sources
Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. October 2, 1935 †December 8, 1967	First African-American astronaut; selected for astronaut training in 1967 for the MOL program; died in an aircraft accident	^[4]
Livingston L. Holder Jr. September 29, 1956	USAF astronaut in the Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program	^[5]
Michael E. Belt September 9, 1957	Astronaut, payload specialist from TERRA SCOUT – US Army Project; retired January 12, 1991. Although he did not fly any shuttle missions during his time as an astronaut, he was the back-up payload specialist to Thomas J. Hennen for the STS-44 mission which deployed a military satellite, undergoing 9 months of astronaut training for the role^[6] He was selected as an astronaut through the US Army's Terra Scout program which was created specifically to support STS-44.^[7]	^[8]
Yvonne Cagle April 24, 1959	In NASA management	^[8]
Jeanette J. Epps November 2, 1970	On August 25, 2020, NASA announced that Epps would join Boeing Starliner-1, the first operational mission of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station.^[9]	^[8]
Jessica Watkins May 14, 1988	Astronaut, NASA Astronaut Group 22	^[10]
Sian Proctor March 28, 1970	Candidate, not selected for NASA Astronaut Group 20. Selected for Inspiration4.	^[11]

Often cited as the first African-American astronaut candidate[]

Image	Name Birth date	Note	Sources
	Ed Dwight September 9, 1933	Ed Dwight made it to the second round of an Air Force program from which NASA selected astronauts, but was not selected by NASA to be an astronaut. Resigned from the Air Force in 1966 due to racial politics. In July, 1961, Frederick Dutton, special assistant to the president, wrote to Adam Yarmolinsky, special assistant to the secretary of defense to say that it was important "that for symbolic purposes in crossing the frontiers of space, this country would have qualified members from minority backgrounds." Shortly after, General Curtis LeMay, chief of the air force told Chuck Yeager, who was running Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) at Edwards Air Force Base that, "[Attorney General] Bobby Kennedy wants a colored in space. Get one into your course." This communication placed Ed Dwight on a career track that could have sent him into outer space. Dwight proceeded to Phase II of ARPS, but was not selected by NASA to be an astronaut.	^[12]

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ "NASA's African-American Astronauts Fact Sheet" (PDF). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
^ "Victor J. Glover, Jr. (Commander, U.S. Navy) NASA Astronaut". NASA. August 13, 2018. Archived from the original on August 8, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
^ "SpaceX launches 2nd crew, regular station crew flights begin". November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
^ Oberg, James H. (2005-02-23). "The Unsung Astronaut". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 2014-11-11. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
^ Hoffman, Sarah (March 7, 2019). "A Space Pioneer Charts A Course For Future Astronauts". KCTS9. Retrieved March 11, 2019. He became a satellite countdown controller, worked on classified missions and earned a position with the competitive Manned Spaceflight Engineer program. While training as an astronaut, he witnessed the faces of NASA’s space shuttle program shift to include women and minorities, along with the white men who first inspired him.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Soldiers - Volume 47 - Page 20. Department of the Army. 1992.
^ "EXPERIMENT REPORT, UNITED STATES ARMY SPACE EXPERIMENT 601, Terra Scout" (PDF). Defense Technical Information Center. 1992-07-29. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Phillips, Kerri (February 8, 2012). "Celebrating Black History Month: NASA's African-American Astronauts". AmericaSpace. Archived from the original on October 13, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2019. Four other African-Americans were selected by NASA as astronauts that did not have the opportunity to fly in space: Livingston Holder, Michael E. Belt, Yvonne Cagle, and Jeanette J. Epps. Each of these dedicated people believed in the advancement of human knowledge and space exploration, and some made the ultimate sacrifice doing what they felt was worth the risk for this endeavor.
^ Potter, Sean (2020-08-25). "Astronaut Jeanette Epps Joins First Operational Boeing Crew Mission". NASA. Retrieved 2020-08-25.
^ Garcia, Mark (2017-06-06). "Astronaut Candidate Jessica Watkins". NASA. Archived from the original on 2017-06-25. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
^ DeSantis, Rachel (March 30, 2021). "Meet First All-Civilian Space Crew, Who Are 'Pushing Boundaries' on Inspiration4-SpaceX Mission". People. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
^ We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, Chapter 5, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2015, pp. 86-104

[Fact_sheet-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ "NASA's African-American Astronauts Fact Sheet" (PDF). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2019.

[2] "Victor J. Glover, Jr. (Commander, U.S. Navy) NASA Astronaut". NASA. August 13, 2018. Archived from the original on August 8, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2019.

[3] "SpaceX launches 2nd crew, regular station crew flights begin". November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.

[4] Oberg, James H. (2005-02-23). "The Unsung Astronaut". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 2014-11-11. Retrieved 2011-01-27.

[5] Hoffman, Sarah (March 7, 2019). "A Space Pioneer Charts A Course For Future Astronauts". KCTS9. Retrieved March 11, 2019. He became a satellite countdown controller, worked on classified missions and earned a position with the competitive Manned Spaceflight Engineer program. While training as an astronaut, he witnessed the faces of NASA’s space shuttle program shift to include women and minorities, along with the white men who first inspired him.^{[permanent dead link]}

[6] Soldiers - Volume 47 - Page 20. Department of the Army. 1992.

[7] "EXPERIMENT REPORT, UNITED STATES ARMY SPACE EXPERIMENT 601, Terra Scout" (PDF). Defense Technical Information Center. 1992-07-29. Retrieved 2020-06-10.

[AmericaSpace2012-8] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Phillips, Kerri (February 8, 2012). "Celebrating Black History Month: NASA's African-American Astronauts". AmericaSpace. Archived from the original on October 13, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2019. Four other African-Americans were selected by NASA as astronauts that did not have the opportunity to fly in space: Livingston Holder, Michael E. Belt, Yvonne Cagle, and Jeanette J. Epps. Each of these dedicated people believed in the advancement of human knowledge and space exploration, and some made the ultimate sacrifice doing what they felt was worth the risk for this endeavor.

[9] Potter, Sean (2020-08-25). "Astronaut Jeanette Epps Joins First Operational Boeing Crew Mission". NASA. Retrieved 2020-08-25.

[10] Garcia, Mark (2017-06-06). "Astronaut Candidate Jessica Watkins". NASA. Archived from the original on 2017-06-25. Retrieved 2017-06-07.

[people_inspiration4-11] DeSantis, Rachel (March 30, 2021). "Meet First All-Civilian Space Crew, Who Are 'Pushing Boundaries' on Inspiration4-SpaceX Mission". People. Retrieved 2021-03-30.

[12] We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, Chapter 5, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2015, pp. 86-104

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