U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford became
the first African American to travel into space when the space
shuttle Challenger lifted off on its third mission.

It was the first night launch of a space shuttle, and many people
stayed up late to watch the spacecraft roar up from Cape
Canaveral, Florida, at 2:32 a.m.

The Challenger spent six days in space, during which time
Bluford and his crew members launched a communications
satellite for the government of India, made contact with an
errant communications satellite, conducted various scientific experiments, and tested the shuttle’s robotic arm.

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. (82)

James Arthur Lovell Jr. (March 25, 1928 – August 7, 2025)

The Apollo 13 commander was remembered for ‘legendary leadership in pioneering human space flight.’ Lovell died
on Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois. 

Jim Lovell, center, with fellow Apollo 13 astronauts Fred
Haise and Jack Swigert.

"Houston, we have a problem." The iconic five-word phrase spoken by Tom Hanks, portraying astronaut Jim Lovell, in
the 1995 blockbuster Apollo 13 instantly became one of the
most memorable movie quotes of all time.

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)

CAMILLE BOHANNON

On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H.
White II opened the hatch of the Gemini 4 and stepped out of
the capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to walk
in space.

White had been preceded as a space walker, by Soviet
cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov, who on March 18, 1965,
was the first man ever to walk in space.

Astronaut Ed White was the first American to walk in space.

Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer, former astronaut and
former director of the Johnson Space Center. In 1993, Ochoa
became the first Latina woman to go to space when she served
on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of
the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012.