First African-American In Space Marks 20th Anniversary Of Flight

Al Feinberg
Headquarters, Washington August 29, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-4504)

RELEASE: 03-278

FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN SPACE MARKS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF
FLIGHT

When NASA's Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off on Aug.
30, 1983, one crewmember chuckled with excitement all the way
into space, and he made history along the way.

Twenty years later, Guion S. "Guy" Bluford's memories of his
historic flight (STS-8) are just as vivid as they were on
that summer night. It was the first Space Shuttle launch and
landing at night and the first time an African-American flew
into space.

"It was around midnight and it was raining," Bluford recalls
today. "We came down the elevator, heading to 'the bird,'
what we called the Shuttle, and all these people were
standing there cheering us on. When the clock counted down
and we took off, I just laughed, it was so much fun," he
said.

Though his achievement instantly thrust him into the
spotlight as a role model for young African-Americans,
Bluford says his goal was never to be the first African-
American in space. "I recognized the importance of it, but I
didn't want to be a distraction for my crew," he said. "We
were all contributing to history and to our continued
exploration of space."

Instead, Bluford says his goal was "to make others feel
comfortable" with African-Americans in space.

"I felt I had to do the best job I could for people like the
Tuskegee Airmen, who paved the way for me, but also to give
other people the opportunity to follow in my footsteps,"
Bluford said. The Tuskegee Airmen made history as the first
black flying squadron in World War II.

Bluford's interest in flying dates back to his days in junior
high school, making model airplanes and wanting to learn more
about jet and rocket engines. Though he wanted to become an
aerospace engineer, he became an Air Force fighter pilot in
1966, eventually flying combat missions over Vietnam. When he
returned from the war, Bluford began teaching others to fly,
but soon decided he was ready to learn more about flying at a
much higher altitude.

In 1977 he applied to NASA to become an astronaut. A year
later, he was selected for the program, along with two other
African-Americans, Fred Gregory and Ronald McNair. But it
wasn't until 1982, in a meeting with George Abbey, then
director of flight crew operations at NASA's Johnson Space
Center (JSC), that Bluford realized he was headed to space.

"Dale Gardner, Dan Brandenstein, Dick Truly and I were all
sitting in Abbey's office," he recalls. "Abbey said, 'I'm
looking for a crew for STS-8, and I was wondering if you were
interested?' It was quite a thrill."

Before the flight, NASA kept Bluford out of the news media
spotlight, so he could focus on his mission. It also helped;
much of the attention was still focused on Sally Ride, who
had just made history on the previous Shuttle flight as the
first American woman in space.

Bluford and the crew of STS-8, including fifth crewmember
Bill Thornton, trained at JSC for 15 months, before heading
to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for their rainy launch early
on Aug. 30.

With the cockpit dark, Bluford recalls fellow astronaut
Shannon Lucid, who would fly on five future Shuttle missions,
strapping him into his seat between Brandenstein, the pilot,
and Shuttle Commander Truly. The clock counted down, and the
Challenger lifted off. Over the next six days, Bluford and
the crew deployed INSAT-1B, a multipurpose Indian satellite,
and they conducted medical measurements to understand the
effects of space flight on the human body.

The one thing he didn't have to worry about was his appetite.
"We had little sandwiches tied to our seats, and when we got
on orbit a couple of crewmembers weren't feeling well as they
adapted to space, so they passed on lunch," Bluford said. "I
felt fine. I not only ate my lunch, but part of theirs, too,"
he said.

Following Challenger's successful early morning landing at
12:30 a.m., Sept. 5, 1983, Bluford went on a three-month
national speaking tour, thanking the public for supporting
him, the crew of STS-8 and the Shuttle program. He was a
crewmember on three more Shuttle missions, STS-61A, STS-39
and STS-53, before retiring from the Astronaut Corps in 1993.
"I was very lucky to have had four successful missions,"
Bluford said. "When you went out to the pad with me,
everything pretty much went as planned."

For more information about Guy Bluford, on the Internet,
visit:

http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/ht...luford-gs.html

Media organizations interested in interviewing Bluford should
contact Al Feinberg, NASA HQ Public Affairs, at: 202/358-
4504.

-end-

And as usual, NASA officially overlooks the real first African-American in
space, the Cuban cosmonaut, Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez
(http://www.spacefacts.de/english/bio_inte.htm), five years earlier.

Jim Oberg, space historian (and friend of Guy, from Mission Ops days at
NASA)
www.jamesoberg.com

In article , Ron Baalke wrote:

FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN SPACE MARKS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF
FLIGHT

Twenty years later, Guion S. "Guy" Bluford's memories of his
historic flight (STS-8) are just as vivid as they were on
that summer night.

....and I noticed that he was credited in the CAIB report in the credits
section, which I thought was a nice touch. I still remember one of his
training photos from so long ago, and had wondered the other day what he
was up to now. Apparently a lot!

-Dan

"Agent Blue" wrote in message
...
Well, which is he, African-American or Cuban?

He's brown, not white. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was Jim's
general point.

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 22:24:01 GMT, "James Oberg"
wrote:


And as usual, NASA officially overlooks the real first African-American in
space, the Cuban cosmonaut, Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez
(http://www.spacefacts.de/english/bio_inte.htm), five years earlier.

Jim Oberg, space historian (and friend of Guy, from Mission Ops days at
NASA)
www.jamesoberg.com




Dr. Bakare Tunde
Nigerian National Space Administration
Central Business District,
Herbert Macaulay Way
Abuja, Nigeria.

Dear Mr. Oberg,

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL;

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force
Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made
a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a
later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military
space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when
the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned
to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return
cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him
going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

In the 13-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated
flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000 American
Dollars. This is held in a trust at the Lagos National Savings and
Trust Association. If we can obtain access to this money, we can place
a down payment with the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return
flight to bring him back to Earth. I am told this will
cost $ 3,000,000 American Dollars. In order to access the his trust
fund we need your assistance.

Consequently, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total
amount to your account for subsequent disbursement, since we as civil
servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service
Laws) from opening and/ or operating foreign accounts in our names.

Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is
enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20% of the
transferred sum, while 10% shall be set aside for incidental expenses
(internal and external) between the parties in the course of the
transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance 70% to other
accounts in due course.

Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include
downpayment in this financial quarter.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this message via my direct fax
number 234- 1-759 1648 only.

Yours Sincerely,
Dr.Bakare Tunde





























**** Disclaimer for the humor impaired, this is only a joke.*****








--
Rusty Barton - Antelope, California |"I'm moving to Mars next week,
E-mail - | so if you have any boxes...."
Visit my Titan I ICBM website at: | - Steven Wright
http://www.geocities.com/titan_1_missile |

"American" is admittedly ambiguous, and Cubans and others call Yankees
'North Americans' to distinguish them from other kinds of Americans, living
elsewhere in the Americas.



"Brian Thorn" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 22:24:01 GMT, "James Oberg"
wrote:


And as usual, NASA officially overlooks the real first African-American
in
space, the Cuban cosmonaut, Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez
(http://www.spacefacts.de/english/bio_inte.htm), five years earlier.

I have *never* heard a Cuban refer to himself or herself as
"American".

Brian

The term "African-American" is used with many connotations, of course, but
look at it this way. It is a compound word, and that implies parallelism of
form of both parts. 'African' is a geographic, not a political term, This
can be used to argue that 'American' should ALSO be construed in its
geographic, not political meaning.

This has lost any significance to 'space' and is just needling for the sake
of needling.

The only worthwhile point is not to forget the achievements of the people
who flew on the Soviet space vehicles.

In article , says...
Brian Thorn writes:

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 22:24:01 GMT, "James Oberg"
wrote:


And as usual, NASA officially overlooks the real first African-American in
space, the Cuban cosmonaut, Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez
(http://www.spacefacts.de/english/bio_inte.htm), five years earlier.

I have *never* heard a Cuban refer to himself or herself as
"American".

African-American is an interesting term (word?). It seems to me it was
part of a pretty direct progression of words that went something like
colored - Negro - black - African-American. This isn't meant to be a
complete list of terms, but it's sort of the list of somewhat generally
accepted non-insulting terms for a group or race of people. You could
argue that African-American is meant to designate a subset of the people
covered by the terms, and logically that should be the case, given what
the constituent words mean, but I've also heard people claim that they
find the term "black" insulting or outdated and we should replace it
with "African-American", and it seems that this replacing is what is
behind Jim Oberg's statement.

Wandering further off topic, I find this (what seems to me)
hyper-sensitivity to terms counter-productive, as I don't see what is
insulting about the terms "black" or "oriental" or "handicapped". This
is not to say that terms can't be insulting, and I wouldn't argue that
"spade" or "chink" or "handicapped" are perfectly fine terms. It just
seems that after we've made the effort to find acceptable words, there
are people who still manage to take issue with the new terms, and when
it reaches the point that the fixed terms are less correct than the
terms they fixed, as I claim is the case for "black" - African-American
or oriental - Asian, then the change isn't worth it.

I sort of agree -- though I read an anlysis once that argued that
communities with low self-esteem seemed to continually try to re-make
themselves by constantly changing the terms by which they are referenced,
while peoples with high self-esteem don't give a rat's ass what other
people call them. I think there's something to that. A "group thin
skin" is a symptom of other cultural issues that often have very little
to do with how a given community is treated by the culture at large.

Another minor nit -- between "black" and "African-American" came the
intermediate term "Afro-American," popular in the 1970's. I could never
understand why that one is insulting, but "African-American" isn't...

--

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for | Doug Van Dorn
thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup |

Doug... wrote:

I read an anlysis once that argued that
communities with low self-esteem seemed to continually try to re-make
themselves by constantly changing the terms by which they are referenced,
while peoples with high self-esteem don't give a rat's ass what other
people call them. I think there's something to that. A "group thin
skin" is a symptom of other cultural issues that often have very little
to do with how a given community is treated by the culture at large.

Another minor nit -- between "black" and "African-American" came the
intermediate term "Afro-American," popular in the 1970's. I could never
understand why that one is insulting, but "African-American" isn't...

Another nit: Terms have continued to change even beyond
"African-American." Today some blacks refer to themselves as "people of
color." Which is probably the clumsiest and least grammatical term yet.
After all, white people don't refer to themselves as "people of
whiteness". And given that the older term was "colored," the term
"people of color" has practically come full circle.


--
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:

Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

"Rusty Barton" wrote in message
...
snip

Awesome. I'm saving this one.