Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Guion S. Bluford, Junior (born November 22, 1942)
is a retired Colonel, from the United States Air
Force and a former NASA Astronaut. He participated
in four flights of Space Shuttle between 1983 and
1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the
space shuttle Space Shuttle Challenger|Challenger
on mission STS-8, Bluford became the first
African-American in space.

Bluford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
He received a BS in aerospace engineering from the
Pennsylvania State University in 1964; a MS in
aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute
of Technology in 1974; a PhD in aerospace
engineering with a minor in laser physics from the
Air Force Institute of Technology in 1978, and a
MBA from the University of Houston, Clear Lake in
1987.

Prior to becoming an astronaut, he attended pilot
training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, and
received his pilot wings in January 1966. He then
went to F-4C combat crew training in Arizona and
Florida and was assigned to the 557th Tactical
Fighter Squadron, Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. He flew
144 combat missions, 65 of which were over North
Vietnam.

In July 1967, he was assigned to the 3,630th
Flying Training Wing, Sheppard Air Force Base,
Texas, as a T-38A instructor pilot. He served as a
standardization/evaluation officer and as an
assistant flight commander. In early 1971, he
attended Squadron Officers School and returned as
an executive support officer to the Deputy
Commander of Operations and as School Secretary
for the Wing.

In August 1972, he entered the Air Force Institute
of Technology residency school at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base, Ohio. Upon graduating in 1974, he
was assigned to the Air Force Flight Dynamics
Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,
Ohio, as a staff development engineer. He served
as deputy for advanced concepts for the
Aeromechanics Division and as branch chief of the
Aerodynamics and Airframe Branch in the
Laboratory. Bluford has written and presented
several scientific papers in the area of
computational fluid dynamics.

== NASA experience ==
Bluford became a NASA astronaut in August 1979.
His technical assignments have included working
with Space Station operations, the Remote
Manipulator System (RMS), Spacelab systems and
experiments, Space Shuttle systems, payload safety
issues and verifying flight software in the
Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) and
in the Flight Systems Laboratory (FSL). Bluford
was a mission specialist on STS-8, STS-61-A,
STS-39, and STS-53.

Bluford's first mission was STS-8, which launched
from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 30,
1983. This was the third flight for the Orbiter
Challenger and the first mission with a night
launch and night landing. During the mission, the
STS-8 crew deployed the Indian National Satellite
(INSAT-1B); operated the Canadian-built RMS with
the Payload Flight Test Article (PFTA); operated
the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES)
with live cell samples; conducted medical
measurements to understand biophysiological
effects of space flight; and activated four
"Getaway Special" canisters. STS-8 completed 98
orbits of the Earth in 145 hours before landing at
Edwards Air Force Base, California, on September
5, 1983.

Bluford then served on the crew of STS-61-A, the
German D-1 Spacelab mission, which launched from
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 30,
1985. This mission was the first to carry eight
crew members, the largest crew to fly in space and
included three European payload specialists. This
was the first dedicated Spacelab mission under the
direction of the German Aerospace Research
Establishment (DFVLR) and the first U.S. mission
in which payload control was transferred to a
foreign country (German Space Operations Center,
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany). During the mission,
the Global Low Orbiting Message Relay Satellite
(GLOMR) was deployed from a "Getaway Special"
(GAS) container, and 76 experiments were performed
in Spacelab in such fields as fluid physics,
materials processing, life sciences, and
navigation. After completing 111 orbits of the
Earth in 169 hours,  Space Shuttle
Challenger|Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force
Base, California, on November 6, 1985.

Bluford also served on the crew of STS-39, which
launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida,
on April 28, 1991, aboard the Orbiter Space
Shuttle Discovery|Discovery. The crew gathered
aurora borealis|aurora, Earth-limb,
star|celestial, and Shuttle environment data with
the AFP-675 payload. This payload consisted of the
Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrumentation for
Shuttle (CIRRIS-1A) experiment, Far Ultraviolet
Camera experiment (FAR UV), the Uniformly
Redundant Array (URA), the Quadrupole Ion Neutral
Mass Spectrometer (QINMS), and the Horizon
Ultraviolet Program (HUP) experiment. The crew
also deployed and retrieved the SPAS-II which
carried the Infrared Background Signature Survey
(IBSS) experiment. The crew also operated the
Space Test Payload-1 (STP-1) and deployed a
classified payload from the Multi-Purpose
Experiment Canister (MPEC). After completing 134
orbits of the Earth and 199 hours in space,
Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center,
Florida, on May 6, 1991.

More recently, Bluford served on the crew of
STS-53 which launched from the Kennedy Space
Center, Florida, on December 2, 1992. The crew of
five deployed the classified Department of Defense
payload DOD-1 and then performed several
Military-Man-in-Space and NASA experiments. After
completing 115 orbits of the Earth in 175 hours,
Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base,
California, on December 9, 1992.

With the completion of his fourth flight, Bluford
has logged over 688 hours in space.

Bluford left NASA in July 1993 to take the post of
Vice President/General Manager, Engineering
Services Division of NYMA, Greenbelt, Maryland.

== External link ==
*
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/bluford-gs.h
tml NASA Biography