Ronald McNair training at NASA, 1983

Courtesy NASA [S83-33925]

NASA mission specialist Ron McNair training for the STS 41-B mission on the remote manipulator system (RMS) simulator, 14 June 1983.

Ronald E. McNair PhD '77 was selected as one of 35 applicants from a pool of 10,000 for the NASA astronaut program in 1978. He was one of the first three African Americans astronauts ever selected by the space program, and in 1984 would become the second African-American to make a flight to outer space.

Michael Feld and Ronald McNair at MIT, 1980s

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