Physicist Ronald E. McNair became the second African American to enter space. He was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978. He was the first of three African Americans to travel into space. The other two were Guion Bluford and Fred Gregory (See photo below).

After he completed his training, in August 1979, McNair received his first assignment as a mission specialist astronaut on Space Shuttle flight crews. On January 28, 1986, the NASA Challenger mission ended in tragedy when the shuttle exploded 73 seconds after takeoff.