Blast Off: A Look at Blacks Who Made History in Outer Space
Black history on earth and beyond.
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Blast Off: A Look at Blacks Who Made History in Outer Space - After entering the Lynx Apollo Space Academy competition, South African Mandla Maseko, 25, was one of 23 people selected to be blasted 62 miles up on a sub-orbital flight aboard a Lynx Mark II shuttle in 2015. He will be the first Black African to go to space. Keep reading to check out other Blacks who made out-of-this-world history. — Dominique Zonyéé (@DominiqueZonyee) (Photo: ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Guion Bluford - Aerospace engineer Guion Bluford got his start as a pilot in the Air Force before becoming a NASA astronaut in 1979. He became the first African-American to travel to outer space in April 1983 aboard the space shuttle Challenger.(Photo: MPI/Getty Images)
Photo By Photo: MPI/Getty Im
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Ronald McNair - Physicist Ronald McNair was the second African-American astronaut to travel to space in February 1984. But on the following mission, he lost his life aboard NASA’s second Challenger spacecraft when it exploded a mere 73 seconds into flight. Beyoncé sparked controversy last year when she used audio from the crashed mission on her album. (Photo: NASA/Space Frontiers/Getty Images)
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Mae Jemison - Mae Jemison was the first African-American woman admitted into the NASA’s astronaut training program on June 4, 1987. After more than a year of training, on Sept. 12, 1992, she became the first African-American woman to travel to space aboard the Endeavour.(Photo: China Photos/Getty Images)
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Stephanie Wilson - Ten years after Jemison was the first African-American woman to join NASA and to travel to outer space, Stephanie Wilson became the second in April 1986. After two years of training she became a mission specialist and has flown on three shuttle missions. (Photo: Kim Shiflett/NASA via Getty Images)
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