By: Becky Cunningham

Black History Month Biography

The first black astronaut in the United States, Guion Bluford served as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.

Guion Bluford

Guion Bluford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania November 22, 1942.  Bluford graduated in 1964.  He graduated from Pennsylvania State University.  He got a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering.  He joined the U.S. Air Force after he graduated.  He served as a pilot in the Vietnam War.  In 1974 he earned a M.S. degree in aerospace engineering, and in 1978 he earned a Ph.D. degree in aerospace engineering and laser physics.  They were both from the Air Force Institute of Technology.  In Clear Lake, University of Houston Bluford earned his M.B.A. degree in 1987.          

                 Guion Bluford was chosen as an astronaut candidate in 1978, and first wet to space August 1983.  That happened three years after the first African American cosmonaut (Cuban cosmonaut, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, flew into space on the Soviet Union’s Soyuz 38 mission.  Guion Bluford 1983 mission board the space shuttle Challenger include the making of an Indian communications satellite and the first launch and landing of a space shuttle at night.

                 Bluford joined the crew of three more space Missions in 1985, 1991, and 19.

                 Guion Bluford retired in 1993 and was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1997, having logged 688 hours in space during his career.  After leaving NASA and the U.S. Air Force, Guion has worked primarily in the private Fragment.

 Over the years, he has worked in the Worked in the aerospace division of several Industries, including Federal Data Corporation and Northop Grumman. Guion Bluford is currently the Leader of the Aerospace Tech. Group.

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