Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. was born
November 22nd 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After graduating
from Penn State in 1964 studying aerospace engineering he joined the
Air Force and served during the Vietnam War. There he flew over 140
combat mission and won medals because that is what you do.
After the
war he went to the Air Force Institute of Technology and got a
master's degree in aerospace engineering and got a Ph.D in 1978.
That
same year he was chosen for N.A.S.A. In August of 1983 Buford became
the first Black person to travel into space. He was a mission
specialist on the Challenger shuttle and participated in the first
night launch. Funny. I've never thought about that before.
He orbited
the planet 98 times in 145 hours. That sounds insane. He went on
three more space mission, his last two were in 1991 and 1992. He
retired in 1993 after spending more than 688 hours in space. I
haven't even spent that much time in water! He was inducted into the
International Hall of Fame in 1997.
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