Following Sally Ride (America’s first female astronaut) by just two months, Guy Bluford’s spaceflight aboard Space Shuttle Challenger provided another visible moment when more young people could see and be inspired by people like themselves flying into space. Bluford served as a mission specialist on the STS-8 mission and his jobs were to deploy an Indian communications-weather satellite, perform biomedical experiments and test the orbiter’s 50-foot robotic arm.

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