And only in the last few years that Johnson got the recognition she long deserved.Katherine Johnson sits at her desk with a globe, or "Celestial Training Device. Mae Jemison would become the first African-American woman to fly in space. It would not be until 1989 that Frederick Gregory would become the first African American to command a NASA mission. Bluford’s fight came five years after the Soviet Union launched Cuban cosmonaut Arnoldo Tomayo Méndez, the first space traveler of African descent, aboard the Soyuz 38 spacecraft. It would take another 20 years before an African American would fly in space, when Air Force Colonel Guion Bluford and the rest of the crew of the shuttle Challenger took off from Cape Canaveral on Aug. “No, there was not,” Slayton answered, erroneously.
“Was there a Negro boy in the last 30 or so that you brought here for consideration?” the reporter asked. In footage from the Smithsonian Channel’s documentary, the exchange goes as follows: At a press conference after the third class of all-white astronauts was named, a reporter put the question of Dwight’s candidacy directly to Deke Slayton, the head of the astronaut office. I knew there was going to be a racial component to that obstacle but I didn’t know it was going to be as sophisticated and determined as it was.”Īs he himself predicted, Dwight did not go to space-and even at the time, his conspicuous absence was noted.
“That never entered my mind because there was a big obstacle standing in my way. “I did not dream that I was going to be the first black astronaut,” Dwight, now 86, told Smithsonian. But then, with little explanation, he effectively disappeared from contention. He was fiercely competitive, which fit the model even more so, and he was a gifted flier.īut none of that meant he was actually going to space.ĭwight thrived in his astronaut training and flight qualification classes, easily making the cut to be included in the group of 26 finalists sent to NASA in 1963, for the next astronaut class. He was slight of build, in keeping with the model of the mid-century astronaut, who had to fit comfortably into spacecraft little larger than phone booths. The Air Force complied, recommending Captain Edward Dwight, a 29-year-old pilot with a degree in aeronautical engineering and 2,000 hours of flight experience. Kennedy ordered the Pentagon to choose an African American to join the third class of astronauts, following the so-called New Nine class, selected in October of that year, and the Original Seven, named in 1959. The idea of integrating the space program began with good intentions and a surprisingly proactive President.
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