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An Interview with Capt. Theresa Claiborne, the first African American woman pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
Recent discoveries and news in aviation and space.
Today we're talking about Afrofuturist space and Afronauts and walking through the Afrofuturism exhibit by our friends at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Frederick Drew Gregory, is the first astronaut born, reared, and educated in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC, which is also home to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. He is a veteran of three space shuttle missions and the first African American to pilot and command a mission in space. He is also the first African American to rise to the second-highest NASA leadership position, Deputy Administrator.
Dr. Guy Bluford launched on the STS-8 mission on August 30, 1983, becoming the first Black American in space. Bluford served as a mission specialist and his jobs were to deploy an Indian communications-weather satellite, perform biomedical experiments, and test the orbiter’s 50-foot robotic arm.
On August 19, 1942, Fairchild Aircraft Division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation opened Plant 7, the first unit in the company to employ Black workers, both men and women, as part of their WWII aircraft manufacturing efforts. In late 1944, Plant 5 at Wilson Boulevard and Kuhn Avenue, manufacturing corrugated parts for the Martin PBM Mariner, replaced Plant 7 as the designated plant for Black employees. A rich, yet incomplete, record of their wartime service can be found in the Fairchild Industries, Inc. Collection at the National Air and Space Museum Archives.
The Pioneers of Flight gallery preview.
When Barbie first became an astronaut in 1965, she was more than a decade ahead of NASA sending a woman to space. Since then, there have been several versions of astronaut Barbie.
The Artemis II mission will return humans to the vicinity of the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. And those Moon-faring humans are commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.
James Banning is perhaps best known for this record-setting transcontinental flight, but his story and accomplishments started years earlier.