Two Black Astronauts – a Man and a Woman – Blasting Off in Shuttle Discovery Launch
Date: Wednesday, December 06, 2006
By: Monica Lewis, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Black history will be made later tonight when the space shuttle Discovery lifts off at Kennedy Space Center. For the first time in the nearly 50 years since NASA was first created by Congress, there will be two black astronauts aboard a space mission.
Chicago native Joan Higginbotham and Marylander Robert L. Curbeam are two of the seven astronauts aboard the Discovery, which is expected to launch at 9:35 p.m. EST Thursday. However, worsening weather conditions are threatening to ground the mission, Associated Press reported late Wednesday evening.
“The forecast has trended for the worse right now,” shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters told the AP. If the mission does launch as planned, it will be the first night shuttle launch in four years.
Higginbotham and Curbeam will both serve as mission specialists, working on the International Space Station. The crew will rewire the space station, deliver a two-ton addition and replace of the space station’s three crew members.
Higginbotham, 42, is the third black female astronaut to go into space. She now joins the trail first blazed by Dr. Mae Jamison, also a Chicago native, who became the first black women in space in 1992. Jemison earned a degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and a degree in medicine from Cornell. No longer an active astronaut, Jemison works with The Jemison Group, Inc., a technology design and consulting company.
Earlier this year, Stephanie Wilson entered space on a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. A Harvard graduate, Wilson was first accepted into the astronaut program in 1996.
With two previous space flights under his belt, Curbeam, 44, is the mission’s most experienced crew member. A married father of two, the Baltimore native earned a degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Naval Academy. He also has a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. He attended Navy Fighter Weapons (Top gun) School and Test Pilot School before becoming an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Chosen to become an astronaut in 1994, Curbeam’s first mission was in 1997. His two previous spaceflights make him the most experienced of the crew, which is also the most diverse in NASA’s history. In addition to Curbeam and Higginbotham, there’s an astronaut of Indian descent, a Swede and a Brit.
The history of black male astronauts is slightly more heralded than that of black female astronauts. Robert Lawrence was the first black astronaut appointed by NASA, but the Air Force test pilot was killed when the F-104 fighter jet he was flying crashed during training.
Guion Buford was the first black male to fly in space in 1983. Three years later Ronald McNair became a tragic footnote in history when he died during the Challenger explosion shortly after liftoff. Another black male astronaut, Michael Anderson, was lost in 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia exploded during reentry.
At Higginbotham’s alma mater, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, a launch viewing party will be held on campus for all throughout the college town to attend, said university spokesperson Pete Rosenbery. The entire community is proud to call Higginbotham one of their own.
“Ms. Higginbotham’s accomplishments are impressive,” Interim Chancellor John M. Dunn said in a written statement. “She is the prime example of the quality of students at SIUC and the successes experienced by thousands of SIUC alumni.”
A 1982 graduate of Chicago’s famed Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, Higginbotham began her career with NASA right after finishing her studies at SIUC, where she earned a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1987. She worked in several roles at NASA, including a payload electrical engineer and lead orbiter project engineer at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where she actively participated in 53 space shuttle missions. While in Florida, Higginbotham earned masters’ degrees in engineering management and space systems from the Florida Institute of Technology.
By 1996, Higginbotham was an astronaut candidate and assigned to work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Throughout the last two decades, Higginbotham has dispelled many myths often attributed to women and people of color by handling such assignments as working with the Robotics Branch and serving as the lead for the Internationals Space Station Systems Crew Interfaces Sections.
Lizette R. Chevalier is chair of SIUC’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, where just 9.5 percent of the students are women.
“Joan Higginbotham’s accomplishments represent the best of what students can dream,” Chevalier said in a written statement. “The fact that she is an African-American woman from our campus just makes all of us proud.”
Dr. Louise A. Rice, national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, of which Higginbotham is a member, shared Chevalier’s sentiments.
“As an astronaut, she is an exceptional role model for girls and young women who are interested in pursuing studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Rice told BlackAmericaWeb.com when contacted at her Augusta, Ga. office. “This is quite a milestone for the sorority as Ms. Higginbotham is the first Delta member to orbit into space -- and she’s even taken a Delta memento with her.”
In addition to her sorority keepsake, Higginbotham will be taking a little bit of Chicago with her, including memorabilia of her beloved Chicago White Sox and an emblem from her high school alma mater. But perhaps her most cherished item will be a picture of her and her late father, William.
Her mother, Inez, a retired Chicago school teacher will be at the launch, as will a host of family and friends.
Higginbotham was initially scheduled to go into space in September 2003, but the February 2003 Columbia tragedy pushed back that launch. In the event weather or technical concerns require the shuttle to remain on ground, NASA has four launch opportunities over five days to start the mission.
Crosswinds and isolated showers are expected at Kennedy Space Center, reducing the chances of a launch over the weekend. Forecasts for next week do bring expected improvements.
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