henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (12/04/83)
Walt Scott asks:
What is the name of the first black astronaut?
Depends. Do you mean the first black man to be officially an astronaut,
or the first black man to fly in space as an astronaut? And how black
is black? The first question is relevant because the USAF Manned Orbiting
Laboratory project in the early 60's had its own group of military
astronauts, which included one black pilot. M.O.L. was cancelled and he
never flew. The second question is relevant because the Soviet Union's
Intercosmos program has flown at least one Cuban, and some people call
anyone with even slightly dark skin "black".
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henrywaltt@tekecs.UUCP (Walt Tucker) (12/06/83)
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I believe that under military flight rules, any pilot that exceeds
and altitude of 50 miles (I can't remember the exact altitude, but
it is something around that; the reference book is at home) is awarded
astronaut status. This means that several test pilots in the X-15
project were actually "astronauts".
Were any of the X-15 pilots that took it up that high black? I don't
know, but I thought maybe some other netters might. This might answer the
original question.
-- Walt Tucker
Tektronix, Inc.faunt@hplabsc.UUCP (Doug Faunt) (12/08/83)
One of the earlier shuttle pilots was already an Astronaut, due to his X15 flights.