Happy birthday, astronaut and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden!

Charles Bolden, born August 19, 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina, is a veteran of four space shuttle missions and a former NASA administrator.

His first trip into space was aboard Columbia (STS-61-C) as pilot in January 1986.  He was the second African-American to pilot a space shuttle.

His second trip was aboard Discovery (STS-31) as pilot in April 1990.  The mission launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

His third trip was aboard Atlantis (STS-45) as commander in March-April 1992.  It was a nine-day mission of scientific experiments.

His fourth and final trip was aboard Discovery (STS-60) as commander in February 1994.  During the mission, the crew managed a link-up with the cosmonauts on Mir.

President Obama appointed Bolden as NASA's administrator in 2009.  He resigned from NASA in 2017.

Columbia (STS-61-C) launched 1986

STS-61-C crew

Front row (L-R): Robert Cenker, Charles Bolden, Robert Gibson, Franklin Chang Diaz

Back row (L-R): Bill Nelson, Steven Hawley, George Nelson

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-61-C), launched January 12, 1986, was the last space shuttle flight before the Challenger disaster. Its crew consisted of Commander Robert Gibson, Pilot Charles Bolden, George Nelson, Steven Hawley, Franklin Chang-Diaz, William Nelson and Robert Cenker.

It was the first flight for Franklin Chang Diaz, the first Latin-American immigrant to go into space.  It was the second mission to have an African-American pilot - Charles Bolden.  Bolden would go onto become NASA Administrator.  It was the second mission to have a sitting politician on board - Bill Nelson (D-Florida).  It was Robert Cenker's only space flight. It might be the first time two astronauts with the same last name were on board.

They returned to Earth January 18.

Discovery (STS-31) launched 1990

STS-31 crew (L-R): Charles Bolden, Steven Hawley, Loren Shriver, Bruce McCandless, Kathryn Sullivan

Discovery (STS-31), launched April 24, 1990, carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.  Its crew consisted of Commander Loren Shriver, Pilot Charles Bolden, Mission Specialist 1 Bruce McCandless, Mission Specialist 2 Steven Hawley and Mission Specialist 3 Kathryn Sullivan.

During the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the solar arrays on the observatory failed to unfurl completely.  While ground control tried to get the solar array to finish unfurling, McCandless and Sullivan prepared for a spacewalk, but ground control managed to complete the task before it became necessary to leave the shuttle.

They returned to Earth April 29.

Atlantis (STS-45) launched 1992

Seated (L-R): Brian Duffy, Charles Bolden; 

Standing (L-R): Byron Lichtenberg, Michael Foale, David Leestma, Kathryn Sullivan, Dirk Frimout

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-45), launched March 24, 1992, was the 11th flight of Atlantis.  Its crew consisted of Commander Charles Bolden, Pilot Brian Duffy, Mission Specialist Kathryn Sullivan, Mission Specialist David Leestma, Mission Specialist Michael Foale, Payload Specialist Dirk Frimout (first Belgian in space), and Payload Specialist Byron Lichtenberg. 

During the mission, the crew carried out many scientific experiments.  The original mission was extended for a day so the crew could conduct more experiments.

They returned to Earth April 2.

Discovery (STS-60) launched 1994

 

Clockwise from bottom left:  Kenneth Reightler, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ronald Sega, Sergei Krikalev,  Jan Davis, Charles Bolden

Mission patch

The first mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir program, Discovery (STS-60) was launched February 3, 1994.  Her crew consisted of Commander Charles Bolden Jr., Pilot Kenneth Reightler, Jr., Mission Specialist Jan Davis, Mission Specialist Ronald Sega, Mission Specialist Franklin Chang Diaz and Mission Specialist Sergei Krikalev, the first cosmonaut to fly on a U.S. Space Shuttle.

Several attempts were made to deploy the Wake Shield Facility, an experimental science platform, but problems arose each time.  It was finally deployed on a later space shuttle mission.

On February 7, Good Morning America performed a video hookup between Discovery (over the Pacific Ocean) and the three cosmonauts on Mir (over the southern United States).

Discovery returned to Earth February 11.

First Belgian in space, Space Shuttle Atlantis launched 1992

STS-45 Atlantis crew - Seated (L-R): Pilot Brian Duffy, Commander Charles F. Bolden, Jr.

Standing (L-R): Payload Specialist Byron K. Lichtenberg, Mission Specialist Michael Foale, Mission Specialist David C. Leestma, Mission Specialist Kathryn D. Sullivan, Payload Specialist Dirk Frimout

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-45) blasted off March 24, 1992 on its eleventh flight and the 46th for the space shuttle program.  On board was Dirk Dries David Damiaan, Viscount Frimout, born in Poperinge, Belgium, making him the first Belgian astronaut.  Charles Bolden served as Commander of the mission, his third trip into space.  Charles later became the first African-American administrator of NASA.

Celebrating Black History Month: NASA astronauts- Guy Bluford, Ronald McNair, Charles Bolden, Mae Jemison

Charles Bolden was appointed by President Barack Obama to become the first African-American Administrator of NASA.  He retired last month.  He became an astronaut in August 1981 and logged 680 hours in space on four flights: STS-61-C (Columbia); STS-31 (Discovery); STS-45 (Atlantis) on which he served as commander, and; STS-60 (Discovery) where he also served as commander.

Guion (Guy) Bluford, Jr., the first African-American in space, joined NASA as an astronaut in August 1979.  He has logged over 688 hours in space on four flights as mission specialist: STS-8 (Challenger); STS-61-A (Challenger); STS-39 (Discovery), and; STS-53 (Discovery).

Ronald McNair became an astronaut in 1978 and flew on mission STS-41-B aboard Challenger in 1984, the second African-American in space.  His second mission was STS-51-L also on the Challenger which exploded just 73 seconds after lift-off.  He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004 along with the crews of the Challenger and Columbia accidents.

Mae Jemison, the first African-American female in space, flew one mission on STS-47 (Endeavor) as mission specialist in 1992.  She left NASA the following year and is a Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.