Astronaut Guion Bluford

Full name: Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. Date of birth: 22nd November 1942 Place of birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Occupation: Engineer, Fighter Pilot, Astronaut Total time in space: 28d 16h 33m NASA missions: STS-8, STS-61-A, STS-39, STS-53


The son of a mechanical engineer and a special education teacher, Bluford grew up in a household where academic success was encouraged. He enrolled at Pennsylvania State University as a member of the U.S. Air Force ROTC program and graduated in 1964 with a degree in aerospace engineering.


He then had to go and take part in the Vietnam war, where he flew 144 missions. After the war he decided to do a masters degree and then in 1978 he applied for NASA's astronaut programme. He was one of the lucky few chosen out of thousands of applicants. One of the other applicants that were selected was Sally Ride who would become the first American woman to go to space. After a few years of training and working various scientific and engineering jobs at NASA, he was finally chosen for the eight space shuttle mission (STS-8) in 1983.


Bluford made history on August 30, 1983, when he became the first African American to experience space travel. Bluford was a specialist for mission STS-8 aboard the space shuttle Challenger, which took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its first night launch. During the mission, the crew deployed a satellite, tested a robotic arm and performed various other scientific experiments in space.


Bluford participated in three other space missions.

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