Bluford, Guion << BLOO furd, GY uhn, >> Stewart, Jr. (1942-…), a United States astronaut, became the first African American to travel in space. On Aug. 30, 1983, Bluford and four other astronauts began a six-day flight on the space shuttle Challenger.
During the flight, Bluford launched a communications and weather satellite for India, and he assisted in testing the shuttle’s remote manipulator arm. The astronauts used the arm to carry a massive weight from the cargo area into space and back again. Bluford also participated in medical tests designed to discover why many astronauts suffer from motion sickness.
In 1985, Bluford served with the West German Spacelab mission. He continued to serve on space shuttle flights until 1993, when he resigned from NASA and retired from the Air Force. After leaving NASA, he held executive positions at a variety of computer, engineering, and aerospace companies.
Bluford was born on Nov. 22, 1942, in Philadelphia. He joined the Air Force in 1964. He received a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1978 and then became an astronaut candidate.
