Complex Numbers

One of the Firsts

There's a bunch of new prompts up over at "JAFBG"  [XGC]. I haven't decided whether to do any of them or not. I spent all of January doing those, and I ended up spamming the forum. I want to give other people a chance there. Besides, I still have a long list of articles to share.

This is one of them, and you might think it would have been more appropriate for last month, but I say it's appropriate at any time.

Astronaut Guion "Guy" Bluford on What It Meant To Be the First Black Man to Fly in Space  

The final human Moon landing took place in December of 1972 - nearly 50 years ago. We (by which I mean the world, not the US or NASA) have sent robots there since then, but humans have been relegated to Low Earth Orbit -- space stations and the like.

Every single person -- 12 in total -- who has walked on the Moon has been a white male American. But since then, there has been a bit more diversity in space.

On August 30, 1983, Guion (better known as Guy) Bluford was a crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger when it launched from Kennedy Space Station on its third mission, making Bluford the first Black astronaut to fly to space. Here he reflects on the importance of that achievement, the role he filled, and the advice he gives to young people seeking to make their way in the world.

I'm not going to copy pieces of the interview here; that's what the link is for.

I'll just say that they're still talking about going back to the Moon, something Bluford, along with everyone else who flew after the end of 1972, wasn't able to do. As I understand it, it's not going to look quite so monochrome next time. In an ideal world, things like ethnicity and gender wouldn't be such a big deal, but we don't live in an ideal world. Members of groups that have historically been passed over should have the same opportunities, and sometimes that means deliberately seeking out such people.

After all, space belongs to all of us.