Guion "Guy" Bluford becomes the first African American to travel into space - August 30th, 1983

On this day in 1983, U.S. astronaut Guion Bluford became the first African American in space.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that rockets through history one story at a time.
I'm Gabe Blusier, and today we're looking at a major

(00:21):
milestone in space exploration. The day when a black American
astronaut finally broke a long standing barrier at NASSA. The
day was auguste. US astronaut Guyon Blueford became the first

(00:46):
African American in space. Just after two thirty am. He
and his crewmates launched into low Earth orbit aboard the
Space Shuttle Challenger and spent the next six days completing
various tasks and experiment monts before returning safely to Earth. Guion,
who often went by Guy, completed three additional Shuttle missions

(01:08):
over the course of his NASA career. Altogether, he logged
six hundred and eighty eight hours in space, slightly more
than twenty eight and a half days. On all four flights.
He served as a mission specialist, which is essentially a scientist.
Astronaut Guillon Stewart Blueford, Junior was born on November twenty two,

(01:31):
nineteen forty two, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the eldest
of three sons born to Guion Blueford Senior, a mechanical engineer,
and Lolita Blueford, a special ed teacher. Both his parents
and his grandparents had attended college, and from an early age,
Guy and his siblings were taught the importance of education.

(01:52):
As a child, Guy developed what would prove to be
a lifelong fascination with flying, and in his teenage years,
he decided he wanted to design and build airplanes for
a living. After high school, he enrolled in Penn State University,
where he earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. In
nineteen sixty five, he joined the US Air Force r

(02:14):
OTC program so that he could learn how to fly
planes before he started building them. He trained as a
fighter pilot and graduated with his pilot wings later that year.
Soon after, Guy was commissioned as an Air Force second
lieutenant and assigned to a squadron in Vietnam. He went
on to fly one hundred and forty four combat missions

(02:35):
during the war and earned several medals for his service,
including the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. Once his tour of
duty was complete, Guy remained in the service as a
flight instructor, training the next generation of fighter pilots. He
also continued his education, graduating from the Air Force Institute
of Technology with a master's degree in aerospace engineering in

(02:58):
nine seventy four and a doctorate in the same field
in nineteen seventy eight. That same year, Guy Blueford Jr.
And thirty four others were selected out of a pool
of nearly ten thousand applicants to become Space Shuttle astronauts
for NASA. In previous programs, astronauts had been chosen from

(03:18):
a narrow field of white, male test pilots. That began
to change with the Space Shuttle program in the nineteen seventies,
as NASA expanded its selection criteria to include scientists, engineers,
and medical doctors. This change added some much needed diversity
to the astronaut corps. In addition to Guy, there were

(03:39):
two other African Americans in his class, doctor Ronald McNair
and Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Gregory. There was also Ellison on Izuka,
who later became the first Asian American in space, as
well as six women candidates, including Sally Ride, who became
the first American woman in space just two months before

(03:59):
Guys first flight. Guy was officially designated a NASA astronaut
in August of nineteen seventy nine, and four years later,
he traveled to space for the first time on Flight
STS eight, the third mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
It was the first Shuttle launch conducted at night, although
the crew didn't actually blast off from the Kennedy Space

(04:21):
Center in Florida until the early morning of August. The
launch went off without a hitch, but one member of
the five person crew had an unusual reaction to the experience.
When the crew reviewed the onboard recordings after returning to Earth,
they realized that someone had been laughing NonStop during the launch.

(04:42):
Guy later recalled the incident saying, quote, we listened to
it for quite a while to try and figure out
who it was, only to come to the conclusion that
there was me. I mean, I laughed and giggled all
the way up. It was such a fun ride. During
the mission, I was responsible for deploying a communications satellite

(05:03):
on behalf of the government of India. He and his
fellow crew members also tested out the Shuttle's robotic arm
and conducted scientific experiments on how space affects the human body.
Over the course of a hundred and forty five hours
or six days. The Challenger crew orbited the Earth eight times,
then on September five, three, they landed safely at Edwards

(05:26):
Air Force Base in California. In the decade that followed,
Guy Blueford flew three more times as a mission specialist
for NASA. His second flight STS sixty one A was
in late nineteen eighty five. He and seven other crew
members flew aboard Challenger as part of the first Space
Lab mission. It was also Challenger's final mission before the

(05:49):
Shuttle exploded after liftoff in January of the following year.
Guy wasn't on that flight, but several astronauts he had
joined the program with were and looting ron McNair. After
the tragic accident, NASA suspended flights for the next two years.
Guy used the downtime to complete a second master's degree,

(06:10):
this time receiving one in business administration from the University
of Houston at clear Lake. Flights resumed in night, and
guys next assignment came three years after that. In April
of ninetee, he flew on flight STS thirty aboard the
Space Shuttle Discovery, where he conducted a series of unclassified

(06:31):
experiments for the U. S Department of Defense. He also
carried out the only classified portion of the mission by
releasing a military communication satellite from the cargo bay. Guy's
final flight, STS fifty three launched in early December the
following year, and also focused on d D experiments and

(06:51):
the deployment of a classified satellite. After returning to Earth
for the fourth time in his life, Guy decided his
time in the Astronaut Corps had come to a close.
He retired from NASA and the US Air Force in
July of and took a job in the private sector
in the field of aerospace engineering. He remained connected to

(07:12):
the space program, though, both through business contracts and as
a consultant for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board that was
convened to examine the deadly breakup of the Space Shuttle
Columbia in two thousand three. Guy Blueford never set out
to be a trailblazer or a role model. As a quiet,
humble guy, he actually wouldn't have minded if Ronald McNair

(07:35):
or Frederick Gregory had become the first African American in
space instead of him. He said as much in a
NASA interview when he explained quote, all of us knew
that one of us would eventually step into that role.
I told people that I would probably prefer not being
in that role because I figured being the number two

(07:56):
guy would probably be a lot more fun. That said,
when it was decided that he would be the first guy,
didn't shrink from the challenge. I wanted to set the standard.
He said, do the best job possible so that other
people would be comfortable with African Americans flying in space,
and African Americans would be proud of being participants in

(08:17):
the space program and encourage others to do the same.
I felt an awesome responsibility, and I took the responsibility
very seriously of being a role model and opening another
door to Black Americans. But the important thing is not
that I am black, but that I did a good
job as a scientist and an astronaut. Guy more than

(08:38):
lived up to that responsibility. He was the first Black
American in space, but he wasn't the last. Since the
time of his first flight, eighteen other African American astronauts
and counting have made the journey into space, including the
first black woman, may Jemmison. So while pioneer may not

(08:59):
have been the role he is after. Guy Blueford definitely
had the right stuff for the job. I'm Gay blues
Yer and hopefully you now know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to
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(09:22):
you have any comments or suggestions, please send them my
way at this day at iHeart media dot com. Thanks,
as always the Chandler Mays for producing the show, and
thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back here
again tomorrow for another day in history class.