November 22 – Happy Birthday, Guy Bluford

nPostednon November 22, 2013

Onenof the things that the U.S. can be most proud of is spacenexploration. I am so excited that many different nations participatenin space missions now, and that private businesses are gettingninvolved as well, but the United States has been one of the leadersnso far. We currently have no vehicle to reach outer space, with thenretirement of the Space Shuttles, but I hope that changesnsoon!

Guion “Guy” Bluford can be proud of hisncontributions to space exploration. He flew on four missions,nincluding a German Spacelab mission with three European astronauts.nBluford was the first African-American in space and the second personnof African ancestry (after a Cuban-born cosmonaut who flew for thenSoviet Union). All his education in aerospace engineering, lasernphysics, and business (he has earned B.S., M.S., Ph.D., and M.B.A.ndegrees!); all his piloting training and flights, including combatntraining and 144 combat missions in Vietnam; all his training at NASAnprobably couldn’t prepare him for one of his missions:

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n Returningna flag to a Boy Scout troop in Colorado. n

nPerhapsnBluford was chosen for the task because he had flown on thenChallenger Space Shuttle on two of his missions. Perhaps he wasnchosen because he had been an Eagle Scout.

nYounsee, a Boy Scout troop in Monument, Colorado, had a Scoutmaster whonhad been a major in the U.S. Air Force assigned to the Space Command.nThe troop ordered a U.S. flag from the Valley Forge Flag Company andnarranged for it to be flown over the U.S. Capitol building innWashington, D.C., in 1985. Then it was submitted to NASA for possibleninclusion on a shuttle flight. (I didn’t realize that you could donthis. It seems like a bit of a waste of precious weight—it would benbetter to use that weight for another experiment, wouldn’t it?)

Atnany rate, the flag was included in the official flight kit of thenChallenger on what ended up being its fateful final flight. The flagnwas sealed in a plastic bag. Next to it were several souvenirnmedallions. On January 28, 1986, the Challenger lifted off—and 73nseconds after launch the Space Shuttle broke apart, killing all sevenncrewmembers.

nThatnwas a sad, sad day. I’m sure Bluford knew some of the astronauts whondied that day very well. The rescuer workers were not able to rescuenanyone, but they did bring up Challenger wreckage from the bottom ofnthe Atlantic Ocean. And…they found the flag and the medallions. Thenmedallions had melted into a single lump of metal, but the flag wasnjust fine. Undamaged. Still sealed in its plastic bag. It wasn’t evennwet.

GuynBluford was sent to Monument on December 18, 1986, almost a yearnafter the tragedy, to restore the flag to the Boy Scout troop. Sincenthen the Challenger Flag, as it is called, has been used for officialnceremonies for the U.S. Constitution’s Bicentennial, for the 2002nWinter Olympic Games, and for the 25^th anniversary of thenChallenger disaster. It is the first flag to have been returned tonWashington and re-flown above the Capitol. n

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