Guion Bluford Guion Bluford was the first African American who traveled to space. He was born on November 22nd 1942. He was born in Philadelphia. In 1983 Guion Bluford and four other astronauts started a six day flight on the space shuttle challenger. During the flight Guion Bluford launched a weather satellite for India and he helped test the shuttle’s Remote Manipulator Arm. The astronauts used the arm to carry a massive weight from the cargo into space and back again. Guion Bluford also participated in metal tests designed to discover why many astronauts have motion sickness. In 1985 Guion Bluford served with the West German Spacelab mission. He continued to serve on the space shuttle flights until 1993, when he resigned from NASA and retired from the Air Force. NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. After leaving NASA he held positions at a variety of computer and engineering. He married a woman named Linda Tull. Guion Bluford was a son of a mechanical engineer and a special education teacher. Guion Bluford grew up in a house where success was encouraged. He went to Pennsylvania State University as a member of the U.S Air Force program. He graduated in 1964 with a degree aerospace engineering. Aerospace means the branch of technology and an industry with both space flight and aviation. Guion Bluford made history on August 30 1983, when he became the first African American to experience space travel. For Bluford’s first night launch, he took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Guion Bluford has won many awards. Some of them are Ten Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards (1967, 1970, 1972) USAF Command Pilot Astronaut Wings (1983) Legion of Merit (1993) But those are only a few of them. Guion Bluford is an interesting African American to learn about! .