List of African-American astronauts

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

African-American astronauts are Americans of African descent who have been part of an astronaut program, regardless of whether they have traveled into space. African-Americans who have been passengers on space-tourist flights are also included in this article, although there is disagreement over whether such passengers should be referred to as "astronauts."[1]

## African-American astronauts

[edit]

### Traveled into space

[edit]

#  | Image  | Name &
birth date  | Notes  | Missions & launch dates  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

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)

| [2]
2  |  | Ronald McNair
October 21, 1950
†January 28, 1986  | First Baháʼí in space; died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster |

* STS-41-B (February 3, 1984)
* STS-51-L (January 28, 1986)

| [2]
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)

| [2]
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)

| [2]
5  |  | Mae Jemison
October 17, 1956  | First African-American woman in space  |

* STS-47 (September 12, 1992)

| [2]
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)

| [2]
7  |  | Winston E. Scott
August 6, 1950  | Veteran of three spacewalks  |

* STS-72 (January 11, 1996)
* STS-87 (November 19, 1997)

| [2]
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)

| [2]
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)

| [2]
10  |  | Stephanie Wilson
September 27, 1966  |  |

* STS-121 (July 4, 2006)
* STS-120 (October 23, 2007)
* STS-131 (April 5, 2010)

| [2]
11  |  | Joan Higginbotham
August 3, 1964  |  |

* STS-116 (December 9, 2006)

| [2]
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)

| [2]
13  |  | Leland D. Melvin
February 15, 1964  | Associate Administrator for Education at NASA  |

* STS-122 (February 7, 2008)
* STS-129 (November 16, 2009)

| [2]
14  |  | Robert Satcher
September 22, 1965  | EVA November 19 and November 23, 2009  |

* STS-129 (November 16, 2009)

| [2]
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)

| [3][4]
16  |  | Sian Proctor
March 28, 1970  | First African American female Spacecraft Pilot, as part of Inspiration4. First African American commercial Astronaut.  |

* Inspiration4 (September 16, 2021)

17  |  | Michael Strahan
November 21, 1971  | First African American space tourist  |

* Blue Origin NS-19 (December 11, 2021)

18  |  | Jessica Watkins
May 14, 1988  | First African American woman to be an ISS expedition crew member  |

* SpaceX Crew-4 (April 27, 2022)

19  |  | Jaison Robinson
September 25, 1980  |  |

* Blue Origin NS-21 (June 4, 2022)

20  |  | Jeanette J. Epps
November 2, 1970  | On August 4, 2023, NASA announced that Epps would join SpaceX Crew-8 that launched to space on March 4, 2024.[5] |

* SpaceX Crew-8 (March 4, 2024)

| [6]
21  |  | Ed Dwight
September 9, 1933  | Considered as the first African-American astronaut candidate, 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 May, 2024, Dwight flew on a Blue Origin space tourist launch that traveled more than 100 km above Earth's surface, becoming at age 90 the oldest person to have flown to space.  |

* Blue Origin NS-25 (May 19, 2024)

| [7][8]

### Never traveled into space

[edit]

Image  | Name & birth date  | Notes  | Ref.

|
|
|

| 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  | [9]
| Livingston L. Holder Jr.
September 29, 1956  | USAF astronaut in the Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program | [10]
| 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[11] He was selected as an astronaut through the US Army's Terra Scout program which was created specifically to support STS-44.[12] | [6]
| Yvonne Cagle
April 24, 1959  | In NASA management  | [6]

## See also

[edit]

* Lists portal

* Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, first person of African descent and first Afro-Latino to fly in space. A Cuban, he flew on a Soviet mission in 1980.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "ARE SPACE TOURISTS ASTRONAUTS?". International Law and Policy Brief. GWU Law. October 11, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2024. "the title of astronaut is more than just a distinction for those space travelers serving as envoys of mankind as they explore worlds beyond earth's atmosphere. It is a mark of someone granted special status under international law; a status that will be questioned as more space tourists and entrepreneurs take to the skies."
2. ^ 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.
3. ^ "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.
4. ^ "SpaceX launches 2nd crew, regular station crew flights begin". November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
5. ^ "Space Station Assignments Out for NASA's SpaceX Crew-8 Mission - NASA".
6. ^ 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."
7. ^ We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, Chapter 5, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2015, pp. 86-104
8. ^ "Blue Origin launches six tourists to the edge of space after nearly two-year hiatus". CNN. May 19, 2024. Retrieved May 19, 2024. "Dwight completed that challenge and reached the edge of space at the age of 90, making him the oldest person to venture to such heights, according to a spokesperson from Blue Origin."
9. ^ Oberg, James H. (February 23, 2005). "The Unsung Astronaut". MSNBC. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2011.
10. ^ Hoffman, Sarah (March 7, 2019). "A Space Pioneer Charts A Course For Future Astronauts". CrossCut, KCTS9. Retrieved January 28, 2023. "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."
11. ^ Soldiers - Volume 47 - Page 20. Department of the Army. 1992.
12. ^ "EXPERIMENT REPORT, UNITED STATES ARMY SPACE EXPERIMENT 601, Terra Scout" (PDF). Defense Technical Information Center. July 29, 1992. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 10, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020.

* v
* t
* e

Spaceflight lists and timelines

* Timeline of spaceflight

General|

* Space exploration
* outline
* timeline
* Spacecraft
* Spaceflight records
* Space Race
* Rocket and missile technology

Human spaceflight|

| General|

* Crewed spacecraft
* timeline
* by program
* Spaceflights
* 1961–1970
* 1971–1980
* 1981–1990
* 1991–2000
* 2001–2010
* 2011–2020
* 2021–present
* Soviet
* Russian
* Vostok and Voskhod
* Soyuz
* Mercury
* Gemini
* Apollo
* Skylab
* Shenzhou
* Gaganyaan
* Spacelab
* Artemis
* Civilian spaceflight
* Orbital
* Suborbital

|

Salyut|

* Expeditions
* Spaceflights
* crewed
* uncrewed
* Spacewalks
* Visitors

Mir|

* Expeditions
* ESA
* Spaceflights
* crewed
* uncrewed
* Spacewalks
* Visitors

ISS|

* Expeditions
* ESA
* Visiting
* Spaceflights
* crewed
* uncrewed
* Spacewalks
* Visitors
* Deployed

Tiangong|

* Expeditions
* Crewed Spaceflights
* Spacewalks

Shuttle|

* Crews
* Missions
* Rollbacks

People|

* Astronauts
* by name
* by year of selection
* Apollo
* Gemini
* Mercury
* Chinese
* Asian
* European
* Cosmonauts
* women
* Muslim
* Arab
* African American
* Ibero-America
* Space scientists
* Space travelers
* by name
* by first flight
* by nationality
* billionaires
* timeline by nationality
* Spaceflight-related human fatalities

EVA|

* 1965–1999
* 2000–2014
* 2015–2024
* 2025–present
* Cumulative spacewalk records
* Longest spacewalks
* Spacewalkers

Solar System
exploration|

* Timeline
* Interplanetary voyages
* Landings on other planets
* rovers
* artificial objects
* Objects at Lagrange points
* Probes
* active
* future
* orbiters
* leaving the Solar System
* lunar probes
* Missions to the Moon
* Timeline of satellites
* Sample-return mission
* Mars

Earth-orbiting
satellites|

* Communications satellite firsts
* CubeSats
* PocketQube
* Earth observation satellites
* Timeline of first Earth observation satellites
* Geosynchronous orbit
* GOES
* GPS
* Kosmos
* Magnetospheric
* NRO
* TDRS
* USA

Vehicles|

* Orbital launch systems
* Comparison
* Sounding rocket list
* Spacecraft
* uncrewed
* crewed
* heaviest
* Upper stages
* Sounding rocket
* Small-lift launch vehicle
* Medium-lift launch vehicle
* Heavy-lift launch vehicle
* Super heavy-lift launch vehicle

Launches
by rocket type|

* Ariane
* Antares
* Atlas
* Atlas LV3B
* Atlas LV3C
* Black Brant
* Electron
* Delta DM-19
* Delta 1
* Delta II
* Delta III
* Delta IV Heavy
* Delta IV Medium
* Delta IV
* Falcon 9 and Heavy
* 2010–2019
* 2020–2022
* GSLV
* H-II and H3
* Kosmos
* Long March
* Minotaur
* New Glenn
* Proton
* PSLV
* R-7 (including Semyorka, Molniya, Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz)
* Scout
* SLS
* Starship
* Thor and Delta
* Thor-Agena
* Thor DM-18 Able
* Thor DM-18 Agena-A
* Thor DM-18
* Thor DM-21 Agena-B
* Titan
* Tsyklon
* V-2 tests
* Vega
* Vulcan
* Zenit

Launches by spaceport|

* Satish Dhawan

Agencies, companies
and facilities|

* Communications satellite companies
* comparison
* Private spaceflight companies
* Rocket launch sites
* Space agencies
* Spacecraft manufacturers

Other mission lists
and timelines|

* First orbital launches by country
* First satellites by country
* NASA missions
* Constellation missions
* Timeline of first images of Earth from space
* Timeline of longest spaceflights
* Timeline of private spaceflight

* v
* t
* e

African Americans

History|

* Timeline
* Abolitionism
* African American founding fathers
* Afrocentrism
* American Civil War
* Atlantic slave trade
* Black Codes
* Black cowboys
* Black genocide
* Black Lives Matter
* Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
* Children of the plantation
* Civil Rights Acts
* 1964
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* 1968
* Civil rights movement 1865–1896
* Civil right movement 1896–1954
* Civil rights movement 1954–1968
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle (1956)
* Sit-in movement
* Freedom Riders
* Birmingham movement
* March on Washington
* Freedom Summer
* Selma to Montgomery marches
* Chicago Freedom Movement
* Post–civil rights era
* Cornerstone Speech
* COVID-19 impact
* Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
* Free Negro
* Free people of color
* George Floyd protests
* Great Migration
* Second
* New
* Exodusters
* Inauguration of Barack Obama 2009 / Inauguration of Barack Obama 2013
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching
* Military history
* Million Man March
* Nadir of American race relations
* The Negro Motorist Green Book
* Partus sequitur ventrem
* Plantations
* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
* Reconstruction Amendments
* Reconstruction era
* Redlining
* Separate but equal
* Silent Parade
* Slavery
* Treatment of slaves
* Tulsa race massacre
* Underground Railroad
* Women's suffrage movement

Culture|

* Afrofuturism
* Art
* Black mecca
* Businesses
* Dance
* Family structure
* Film
* Folktales
* Hair
* Harlem Renaissance
* New Negro
* Hoodoo
* Juneteenth
* Kwanzaa
* LGBTQ community
* Literature
* Music
* Musical theater
* Names
* Negro National Anthem
* Neighborhoods
* Newspapers
* Soul food
* Stereotypes
* Middle class
* Upper class

Notable people|

* Ralph Abernathy
* Maya Angelou
* Crispus Attucks
* James Baldwin
* James Bevel
* Julian Bond
* Amelia Boynton
* James Bradley
* Carol Moseley Braun
* Edward Brooke
* Blanche Bruce
* Ralph Bunche
* George Washington Carver
* Shirley Chisholm
* Claudette Colvin
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Medgar Evers
* James Farmer
* Henry Highland Garnet
* Marcus Garvey
* Fred Gray
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Kamala Harris
* Jimi Hendrix
* Jesse Jackson
* Ketanji Brown Jackson
* Michael Jackson
* Harriet Jacobs
* Barbara Jordan
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Huddie Ledbetter
* John Lewis
* Joseph Lowery
* Malcolm X
* Thurgood Marshall
* Toni Morrison
* Bob Moses
* Diane Nash
* Barack Obama
* Michelle Obama
* Rosa Parks
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Colin Powell
* Gabriel Prosser
* Joseph Rainey
* A. Philip Randolph
* Hiram Revels
* Paul Robeson
* Al Sharpton
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Clarence Thomas
* Emmett Till
* Sojourner Truth
* Harriet Tubman
* Nat Turner
* Denmark Vesey
* C. T. Vivian
* David Walker
* Booker T. Washington
* Ida B. Wells
* Roy Wilkins
* Oprah Winfrey
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young

Education, science
and technology|

* Black studies
* Black schools
* Historically black colleges and universities
* Inventors and scientists
* Museums
* Women
* in computer science
* in medicine
* in STEM fields

Religion|

* African-American Jews
* Islam
* American Society of Muslims
* Nation of Islam
* Black church
* Azusa Street Revival
* Black Hebrew Israelites
* Black theology
* Doctrine of Father Divine

Political movements|

* Anarchism
* Back-to-Africa movement
* Black power
* Movement
* Capitalism
* Conservatism
* Leftism
* Pan-Africanism
* Populism
* Raised fist
* Self-determination
* Nationalism
* Socialism

Civic and economic
groups

* Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
* Black Panther Party
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
* Nashville Student Movement
* National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC)
* National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)
* National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC)
* National Urban League (NUL)
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* Thurgood Marshall College Fund
* United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
* Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL)

Sports|

* Negro league baseball
* Baseball color line
* Black players in professional American football
* Black NFL quarterbacks
* Black players in ice hockey
* Muhammad Ali
* Arthur Ashe
* Jack Johnson
* Joe Louis
* Jesse Owens
* Jackie Robinson
* Serena Williams

Athletic associations
and conferences

* Central (CIAA)
* Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
* Southern (SIAC)
* Southwestern (SWAC)

Ethnic subdivisions|

* By African descent
* Fula
* Gullah
* Igbo
* Yoruba
* Alabama Creole
* Black Indians
* Black Seminoles
* Cherokee Freedmen
* Choctaw Freedmen
* Creek Freedmen
* Black Southerners
* Blaxicans
* Great Dismal Swamp maroons
* Louisiana Creole
* of color
* Melungeon

Demographics|

* Neighborhoods
* list
* U.S. cities with large populations
* 2000 majorities
* 2010 majorities
* Metropolitan areas
* States and territories

Languages|

* Afro-Seminole Creole
* American Sign
* Black American Sign
* English
* American English
* African-American English
* African-American Vernacular English
* social context
* Gullah
* Louisiana Creole

By state/city|

* Alabama
* Arkansas
* California
* Los Angeles
* San Francisco
* Florida
* Jacksonville
* Tallahassee
* Georgia
* Atlanta
* Hawaii
* Illinois
* Chicago
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Davenport
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Lexington
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Baltimore
* Massachusetts
* Boston
* Michigan
* Detroit
* Mississippi
* Nebraska
* Omaha
* New Jersey
* New York
* New York City
* North Carolina
* Ohio
* Cleveland
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Philadelphia
* Puerto Rico
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Austin
* Dallas–Fort Worth
* Houston
* San Antonio
* Utah
* Virginia
* West Virginia

Diaspora|

* Africa
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Liberia
* Sierra Leone
* America
* Canada
* Dominican Republic
* Haiti
* Mexico
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Israel
* Europe
* France

Lists|

* African Americans
* Activists
* Actors
* Astronauts
* Billionaires
* Journalists
* Jurists
* Mathematicians
* Republicans
* Singers
* Sportspeople
* Spingarn Medal winners
* US cabinet members
* US representatives
* US senators
* Visual artists
* Writers
* African-American firsts
* Mayors
* Sports firsts
* US state firsts
* Historic places
* Index of related articles
* Landmark African-American legislation
* Lynching victims
* Monuments
* Neighborhoods
* Topics related to the African diaspora

* Category
* United States portal

Authority control databases

National|

* United States
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

*[Ref.]: Reference(s)
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template