Space Race, The (2023)

[bunniefuu]

(radar beeping)

NARRATOR: Here are the amazing

adventures of a group of

space pioneers marooned

on an uncharted planet.

Adventure as

challenging as tomorrow.

MAN: Good landing, Flash.

We're right near

the tunnel entrance.

MAN: We're headed for

the planet Saturn.

FLIGHT CONTROLLER: Seven, six,

five, four, three, two, fire.

DISNEY: In our modern world,

everywhere we look we see

the influence science

has on our daily lives.

Many of the things that

seem impossible now

will become realities tomorrow.



CHARLIE: When you look at the

history of space exploration

within the United States,

there were no Black astronauts.

Astronauts were white

male test pilots

"who were all 5'10" on average.

They called it the right stuff.

FLIGHT CONTROLLER:

Three, two, one.

LELAND: In America,

space exploration was

never something for Black folks.

But the people of the African

diaspora have always been

scientifically and spiritually

connected to the cosmos.

This connection is something

that's been around for

a long time, but we've

been robbed of our history.

In its symbolism, space allows

you to see what's possible.

SUN-RA: They say that

history repeats itself,

but history is only his story.

I'm not a part of history.

I'm more a part of a mystery.

(theme music plays)



EMCEE: Well, good afternoon.

It's my pleasure to welcome you

to the Kennedy Space Center,

and it gives me great

honor and pleasure to

introduce our administrator,

Charlie Bolden.

(applause)

CHARLIE: Thank

you all very much.

Um, you know,

it is here that so many

giant leaps have been made,

but what's really important

is that it is here

that many of our future dreams

will be made to come true.

My name is Charles

Bolden. I go by Charlie.

I spent 34 years on active

duty in the Marine Corps,

flew four times on the shuttle.

I was in the pilot for the

Hubble Space Telescope mission.

MAN (over radio): Discovery,

go for Hubble release.

CHARLIE: And I was the NASA

administrator during the

Obama Administration,

the only Black to ever be

the NASA administrator.

Very few people today

even have a clue about.

Black people's contribution

to human space flight,

because they weren't

written in history books.

In Africa, the griot is

the master in a village

that carries the

history of the people.

And unless you're very

fortunate to have a parent or

a mentor or somebody else

who teaches you about it,

you might miss it.



ED: If you're really an

observer of Black people's

accomplishments in America,

we've only made progress

in certain areas.

And it seems like in the

larger scheme of things,

there are areas

that are inviolate.

And this space thing falls

right into that category.

I get questions about, you

know, what really happened,

and my answer to that question

is I don't think America or

anybody knows how complex

the situation was.

NARRATOR: In 1961, Captain

Dwight received a letter from.

President John F. Kennedy

offering him the opportunity

to become the first

Black astronaut.

ED: Well, it wasn't Black then.

It was n*gro astronaut.

Kennedy. Kennedy. Kennedy

Kennedy for me

ED: When this whole

thing went down,

Kennedy was trying to

get elected president.

And he knew that he

needed the Black vote.

Kennedy

ED: And so supposedly, a group

of Black community leaders

set up this meeting

with Senator Kennedy,

and all these guys had their

agenda about what they wanted.

The story goes, there were

people like Roy Wilkins and.

A. Philip Randolph, and

Whitney Young went on last.

He was affiliated with the

Urban League and he said,

"Senator, we can't get

our Black kids into the

engineering and science schools.

But we've got m*llitary

academies, and we can

fill these m*llitary

academies up with Black kids.

"I'll find the Black kids."

Kennedy is, "Huh,

this is interesting.

What do you want from me?"

And Whitney's answer was,

"Make me a Black astronaut,

and give him to me."

(cheering)

REPORTER: Here inside the Armory

the once very junior senator

for Massachusetts, now at the

age of 43, the president-elect

of the United States and

his wife, Jacqueline.

ED: Kennedy won the presidency.

But as far as this

Black astronaut thing,

that was the last thing

that was on his mind.

(phone ringing)

And Whitney was calling him,

"What about my astronaut?

What about our deal?"

General LeMay was

Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The President called

him and asked him,

"How long would it take you

to make me a Black astronaut?"

And the response was five years.

The President said,

"That's not good enough.

I want some information

on my desk by Friday."

And that's how fast this

whole thing evolved.

Back in those days,

there weren't too many.

Black pilots in the world.

Many of them were

Tuskegee Airmen left over

from World w*r II.

And so now, it was easy

for them to come up with

a set of credentials that

eliminated everybody.

You had to have 1500

hours of jet time.

You had to have a degree in

engineering or natural science.

Your last three effectiveness

reports had to be rated

outstanding, and

you had to be young,

which eliminated the

entire Tuskegee Airmen.

From their point of view,

they came up with criteria

that no Black person in the

universe could ever meet.

So they were trying

to figure out

who the hell is Captain Dwight?

From the time I was two,

mom would take us to the

airport every day.

It just blew my mind,

the whole idea of flying,

and I went straight into

the m*llitary out of college.

I was 27 years old, and I had

a pretty good career going.

At that point in time,

I was the only Black

officer on the base,

and so I'm living in

this white universe.

But I was happy doing

what I was doing,

and I had no reason to

be racially conscious.

I had no intention of

being an astronaut.

That was the last thing

on my bucket list.

But once I was

given the challenge,

then everything changes.

And so I polled all of

my superior officers.

Until a person, they told me,

"They would make hamburger

out of you, Dwight."

But then I called my mom, and

she introduces this race factor,

"You're uplifting the

race if you did this."

And so I went back

to Colonel McDonald.

Colonel McDonald said,

"The hell with your

race. You save yourself,"

and I said something

absolutely stupid to him.

I said, "You know,

if I do this",

I'll be on the cover

of Ebony Magazine."

(laughing)

And this guy says, "What

the hell is Ebony Magazine?"

(laughing)

GUY: Interesting enough,

people asked me if I wanted

to be an astronaut

when I was a kid.

MING THE MERCILESS:

Flash Gordon.

FLASH GORDON: You didn't think

you'd get away with this.

Did you, Ming?

GUY: And I tell them no,

because astronauts were

science fiction things

and aliens and all

that sort of stuff.

And so I never really had

a strong feeling for it.

Math and science were the

driving force in my life,

and I was curious of a

lot of different things.

But the thing that I loved most,

I was crazy about airplanes.

I didn't look at them from

a pilot point of view.

I looked at them from

a how are they built?

Is it a nice-looking airplane?

Will it fly fast?

So I looked at it from an

engineering point of view.

And interesting enough,

my father was an engineer,

and I never really

recognized that that was

a strange occupation

for a Black man.

I didn't think that was unusual.

And so I got accepted

to Penn State in the

aeronautical

engineering department.

I showed up on a

campus, and they're not,

they're just not there.

And I realized I was the

only Black student in

aerospace engineering.

CHARLIE: Growing up, my

mom and dad, you know,

they always talked

about possibility.

But growing up in

the Jim Crow South,

you just, you knew what

you could and couldn't do,

and you didn't press the system.

You were taught you don't

have the right to do that.

You don't have the right

to drink from that fountain

because that says white, so

don't even think about it.

And it was the same

thing with NASA.

I loved the space program,

I was enamored with it,

but nobody doing that

stuff looked like me.

Ed was in consideration

for the NASA program,

which is America's

civil space program,

and there is no organization

that is more effective in

promoting our

greatness than NASA.

But having a Black man as

the face and voice of America

in space, that's different.

That's real different.

ED: Only two years before this

whole Black astronaut thing

were the first seven

astronauts named.

OFFICIAL: It's my

pleasure to introduce

these, ladies and gentlemen,

are the nation's

Mercury astronauts.

(applause)

ED: They spent millions of

dollars making the first seven

astronaut heroes with

the implication that

they were superheroes.

And there was no way

in God's green earth

they would allow me to

be equal to these guys.

Because if a Black guy could

qualify to be among these guys,

then the first seven guys

were not heroes anymore.

That meant anybody could do it.

FRED: With Ed, there was a

lot of politics involved.

And in my career, I learned

never get yourself

associated with a political.

Never.

I mean, as long as that

political person is in power,

then you'll progress.

But at the same time,

you get a lot of enemies

when you do it that way

because they think you're

in a special group.

The rest of them think

you're in a special group.

ED: From the time I got down to

Edwards for test pilot school,

I was set up to fail.

GUY: When you think of test

pilot, do you think edge of

the envelope and all

of that sort of stuff,

like Chuck Yeager, you know,

breaking the sound barrier?

NARRATOR: On October 14th, 1947,

Air Force Captain

Charles E. Yeager

made the world's first

supersonic flight.

(boom)

And he does it.

The first human to

cr*ck the sound barrier.

ED: Chuck Yeager was the head

of the test pilot school.

He was one of my idols.

CHUCK: We're turning out an

entirely different breed of

pilot here at the school.

These guys will be working on

programs all the way from the

surface of the earth to space.

ED: And he called all

the instructors in and

the students before I got

there and tells the people,

"Washington is trying to cram

a n*gg*r down our throats,

and we can't let him graduate."

There was a lot of denial

that this ever happened,

but the story was told to

me by a person that was

in the room so I have

no reason to doubt it.

The other students were

instructed not to speak to me,

not to drink with me,

not to socialize with me.

It's like walking

into a deep freeze.

But this is a lot more complex

than just being r*cist.

The President should've had

him on board in the beginning

with this Black astronaut idea,

but he was upset

because, you see,

nobody called him.

They called everybody

in this whole aerospace,

test pilot thing, and

they did not call Yeager.

He actually told me this

because he was constantly

calling me into his office

and asking me to quit.

He would pull out a

piece of paper and says,

"There's 150 white boys here

that are more

qualified than you.

You don't belong here."

The isolation and all the lack

of support that I was getting,

this gave me the... the balls

to stand up Yeager, and

we'd go head to head.

I mean, I told him to kiss

my ass, to go to hell,

I don't believe

you, you're a liar.

Any one of those meetings

that I had with Yeager,

I could've been court-martialed.

But I did that, and I

was never intimidated.

Never intimidated.

So I told him, "I'm

not going anywhere."

(engine roaring)

After I graduated from

test pilot school,

Kennedy announced me as

the first n*gro astronaut.

That was the headline.

And so all of a sudden,

my schedule was full with

all of these extraneous

things that I did not expect.

Whitney Young was, got a

laser focus on using me

as much as he could use me.

And his thinking was,

this is the last frontier,

this whole space thing, and

we could use this politically

to do all kinds of things.

I would be away from training

from Thursday until

Monday afternoon,

and I'd be making speeches

all over the country about

the whole concept of

this n*gro astronaut.

I was making contacts.

I was spreading the word.

When I got back to Edwards,

the press wanted to talk to me.

They won't talk to none

of the rest of those guys,

so I was getting backlash

from the other students.

From their point of

view, they're going,

"What in the world's

going on here, man?"

ANCHOR: A 29-year-old

n*gro says he is anxious

to go into space.

He's Captain Edward

Dwight of the Air Force,

selected to be an astronaut,

the first of his race

to be so designated.

ED: When I was first announced,

everybody tried to make

a real big hero out of me,

and all they could think

about was that, you know,

I could be the first

guy on the moon.

But they didn't have

any concept whatsoever

what it took to be a test

pilot or an astronaut.

(engine roaring)

Cheating death and

all that kind of,

that didn't occur

to these people.

I was a body in a way.

When I was chosen

for this thing,

I was actually divorced.

And they said, "Where

is she? Go find her."

So I had to play the game.

You know, I had to

bring the wife and

I had to bring the kids.

I had to bring the

whole thing together.

This was all orchestrated

by the White House,

by the Pentagon, and

it was imaginary.

It was a lie.

CHARLIE: Ed Dwight was being

used for propaganda purposes

because they wanted to show

that they were engaged in

civil rights and

equality for all.

ED: I suppose you could

say that this is definitely

a sign of progress for

the n*gro in the country.

GUY: PR is a big thing.

NASA is real sensitive to that,

and you have to

be able to do that

without being eaten up by it.

(crashing)

ED: My job was go educate these

people about space traveling.

That was supposed to be

my role in all this stuff,

but I caught hell from

the NAACP and all the.

Black organizations because

I wasn't militant enough.

I was in there talking

about space and they.

"Man, what's wrong

with you, man?"

You got to talk

about the struggle.

Who wants to hear all

about that space stuff and

all of the space part.

Who wants to hear that?

"Man, you got to talk about

how bad they treating us, man."

And if I did that, I

would've been deported,

you know, immediately.

I was a special person

with a built-in audience

that somebody else

created for me,

and I got on the cover

of all these magazines

so I felt that I was better

than these guys, really.

I mean, I'm getting 1500 fan

mail letters a day and I was,

I have people tell me I was

the most incredible

person on earth,

and I had to be the

bravest person in the world

to even think about

going in space.

And you hear all that, you

start believing this stuff.

ANNOUNCER: Okay, I guess y'all

know why you're here today.

ED: When the announcement

came, I mean everybody was

there from all over the

country with cameras.

I mean, there was more

cameras than people.

You know what I mean?

(camera shutters)

I just knew that all the work

that Whitney had done and that

Kennedy had done, that I was

going to be on that list.

(applause)

ANNOUNCER: I'd like to

introduce to you the new group

of 14 astronauts that we've

been in the process of

selecting for about

the last four months.

REPORTER: Was there a n*gro

boy in the last 30 or so that

you brought here

for consideration?

DONALD: No, there was not.

Okay, I guess we're

through, Paul.

ED: He finishes the list and

for that split second of time,

I said to myself, "Hmm,

maybe it didn't work."

FRED: When you began looking

at who had been selected from

the program, it was very clear

that there was no attempt

at that time to integrate.

ED: Right after

the announcement,

I'm calling my parents and

people were calling me and

don't worry, you're still good.

And I was bolstered by that

because I knew for a fact that

they were not going to

walk away from this thing.

About a month later, we

were in Seattle, Washington,

going through what they call

a full mission simulator.

(radio chatter)

And all of a sudden

somebody says,

"They just k*lled

the president."

And everything came to a

screeching halt and I said,

"Dude, that ain't

funny worth a damn."

and he says, "No, this is

real. The president is dead."

CRONKITE: Here is a

bulletin from CBS News

from Dallas, Texas.

The flash, apparently official,

President Kennedy d*ed at

1:00 PM Central Standard Time,

2:00 Eastern Standard

Time. Some 38 minutes ago.



ED: When I found out the

president was k*lled,

they sh*t us back to Edwards,

and nobody was saying

anything to anybody

because everybody knew what

everybody was thinking,

"What's going to

happen to Dwight?"

FRED: Within a few years,

that entire support system

that Ed Dwight had disappeared.

REPORTER: Why aren't

you an astronaut?

Are you now in fact completely

out of the astronaut program?

Did you write a 15-page report?

(camera shutters)

CHARLIE: When President

Kennedy was k*lled,

people who opposed having

Ed Dwight get into the

astronaut program said, "That's

it. Terminate it. Stop."

REPORTER: You feel that

what's happened to you is

a setback for the civil rights

opportunities in this country?

ED: I would rather

not comment on that.

My hope was just getting into

space in any kind of way.

But they were not going

to let that happen,

and they said, number

one, I wasn't tall enough.

I was Catholic.

I wasn't Black enough.

I was not the model

of the n*gro race.

I felt very, very used and

I made a decision to resign.

Had all of the

things being equal,

I would've made it to the moon.

I had the capability and I was

not given that opportunity.

For a second or

two microseconds,

you wrap that around and then

you throw it in the trashcan.

(laughing)

(engine roaring)

BERNARD: When I think about

Ed Dwight, I sometimes wonder

if things had played

out differently and

he indeed went to space.

Let's think about what a

difference that would've made.

At that moment in

the Black community,

this was a difficult time.

ANNOUNCER (over film): As for

America, Black people have

been here for more

than 400 years.

We have contributed

dearly in all of the gains

this land has made.

And we have suffered

disproportionately in

all of its failures.

BERNARD: Space really allows

us to realize the hope that's

within all of us

as human beings,

and so to see a

Black man in space

during that period of time,

it would've changed things.

REPORTER (over TV):

If all goes well,

some 112 hours and 50

minutes after liftoff,

Neil Armstrong will step

on the lunar surface.

It shows what the richest

nation in history can do

when it puts its mind to it.

CHARLIE: I was a

student naval aviator.

As a matter of fact, I was, I

was in Meridian, Mississippi.

My wife and I had rushed back

from a, from a raucous weekend

in New Orleans to sit before

the black and white television

and in the bachelor

officers quarters

at the Naval Air

Station Meridian,

so we could see human

beings land on the moon.

Leading up to that, there

was a protest to the.

NASA administrator that

he should stop the launch.

No more mean white folk

Over me, over me

RALPH (over film): Ladies

and gentlemen of the press,

on the eve of one of

man's noblest ventures.

I am profoundly moved by our

nation's scientific achievements

in space and by the

heroism of the three men

who are embarking for the moon.

I have not come to Cape

Kennedy merely to experience

the thrill of this

historic launching.

I'm here to demonstrate in a

symbolic way the tragic and

inexcusable gulf between.

America's

technological abilities

and our social injustice.

CHARLIE: They said NASA should

take some of the money that

was going into the space

program, if not all the money

and put it into, into poor

people in social needs.

THOMAS: Ladies and gentlemen,

I'm here because you invited

me to be here and because

I want to be here.

If it were possible for us

tomorrow morning to not push

the button and to solve the

problems to which you are

concerned, believe me, we

would not push the button.

I would make a counter

request, and that is when you

have your prayer vigil tonight

that you'll pray for the

safety of our astronauts.

This would mean a great deal to

all of us in the space program.

CHARLIE: The NASA

administrator told them,

we believe that down the

road this is going to benefit

what you're trying to do.

That was his argument.

They didn't buy it,

but nonetheless,

they launched and

the rest is history.

SPEAKER: Five, four,

three, two, one, zero.

All engines running.

(engine roaring)

RALPH: We pray for these

brave, courageous heroes,

make their way to the

moon home tomorrow.

May they never forget their

suffering brothers and sisters

down here on the earth.

May they think about us

tomorrow and pray for us

as we will be praying for them.



ARMSTRONG (over radio):

It's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

BERNARD: For this little

Black kid to not see any

you know, Black people being

part of the space program

just egged me on.

I said, "Well, they

may not want us there.

I may not see someone who

looks like me, but we're going

to prove them wrong and

I'm not the only one."

H. RAP: We tend to equate

progress with concessions.

We can no longer

make that mistake.

You see, when they gave

us that n*gg*r astronaut,

you said, "We were

making progress."

But I told you, "They were

going to lose him in space."

He didn't get that far.

(applause)

SPEAKER: Black power

means Black dignity.

We don't want any

more than you have and

we're not going to accept

any less than you have.

That's Black power.

CHARLIE: After the early days

of the civil rights movement,

you had Stokely Carmichael

and organizations like the.

Black Panthers that were

incredible in their ability

to build pride in

the Black community.

STOKELY: We don't need

anybody to tell us to

stand up anymore.

Not only are we going to stand

up, we going to right the

wrongs of our people

in this generation.

When you wish upon a star

CHARLIE: And then you had

other people who had their

eyes somewhere

out on the future.

SPEAKER: Growing up as a

poor painfully shy child,

author Octavia Butler found a

refuge in the limitless world

of science fiction.

Life ain't always

what it seems, oh yeah

OCTAVIA: You got to

make your own worlds.

You got to write yourself in.

Whether you were a part of

the greater society or not,

you got to write yourself in.

You're a shining star

No matter who you are

LELAND: As a kid, space was

never something for the.

Black diaspora, but Afrofuturism

was this cultural aesthetic

that gave Black people

the opportunity to

see ourselves in space.

GEORGE: Nobody's seen

a Black in outer space.

That was not even a

concept of nobody's mind,

especially sitting on a

spaceship like it's a Cadillac.

Shining star for you to see

What your life can truly be

Shining star for you to see

LELAND: And so Afrofuturism

provides a vision of the

future with our flavor

added to the mix.

Shining star for you to see

What your life

can truly be

SUN-RA: I am Sun-Ra,

ambassador from the

intergalactic regions of

the council of outer space.

WOMAN: How do we

know you for real?

WOMAN: sh**t, I know I'd

probably take off running if I

see somebody walking down

the street talking about

going to outer space.

SUN-RA: How do

you know I'm real?

ALL: Yes.

SUN-RA: I'm not real.

I'm just like you.

You don't exist in this society.

If you did, your people wouldn't

be seeking equal rights,

so we are both myths because

that's what Black people are.

Myths.

They take frequent

trips to the moon.

I noticed none of you

have been invited.

How do you think

you're going to exist?

The year 2000 is right

around the corner.

MAN (over TV): When Neil

Armstrong stepped onto the moon,

the restless American spirit

began asking the question,

what next?

Well, this morning we

start to get the answer.



REPORTER (over TV): This is

Orbiter 101 as it rolled out of

the hangar in

Palmdale, California.

CHARLIE: A lot of people

talk about the technological

marvel of the space shuttle.

REPORTER (over TV):

A transportation system capable of

delivering 65,000 pounds

of payload into orbit.

CHARLIE: And I said,

true, but that's not its

most important

contribution to humanity.

It was a big vehicle like the

size of a 737 airplane that

could carry a crew of seven,

but it only needed two pilots,

so people who were scientists

and engineers could fly along

as crew members while

the two pilots up front

took care of flying the vehicle.

All of a sudden we were

able to hire astronauts

who didn't look like the

classic NASA astronaut,

so it revolutionized the

makeup of the space program.

FRED: I had been a test pilot

for NASA for about six years,

but every day I came in

and did the same thing.

I felt like I was in a rut,

and then I saw something

that to this day, uh,

it just still,

still overwhelms me.

NICHELLE: Hi, I'm

Nichelle Nichols,

but I still feel

a little bit like.

Lieutenant Uhura on the

Starship Enterprise.

(clapper board)

FRED: There was a young

lady that we all knew and

her name was Lieutenant Uhura.

NICHELLE: Frequency

open, Mr. Spock.

Come in, star base.

Come in Captain Kirk.

FRED: She was Nichelle Nichols

and she was on Star Trek.

NICHELLE: Star Trek projected

a future in space that

included all of us, so I

became very involved with NASA,

with the idea that

especially Black people

had to have an awareness

of those possibilities.

It's still an all white

male astronaut core.

People are somewhat well, the

credibility is rather zero

with NASA in the minority

and female community.

FRED: I remember her saying,

"I don't see me here."

And she went out on a campaign

and crisscrossed the country.

NICHELLE: Suddenly there was

this connection going from

fantasy to fact, and I

was that spokesperson.

FRED: I saw her on TV.

NICHELLE: I'm speaking to the

whole family of humankind,

minorities and women alike.

FRED: I know she

was talking to me.

Others claim she

was talking to them.

No, she was talking to me.

NICHELLE: If you qualify

and would like to be

an astronaut, now is the time.

This is your NASA.

A space agency embarked on

a mission to improve the

quality of life on

planet earth right now.

FRED: The last NASA astronaut

selection was in '69,

so there was a gap.

One program was shutting

down, a new one was beginning.

PRODUCER: Camera. Speed.

Fred Gregory, scene 28.

Guion Bluford. Scene 26.

Ron McNair, scene 27. Take one.

(clapper board)

MAN: The National Aeronautics

and Space Administration

today chose the 35 persons who

will ride the space shuttle

into orbit and

back in the 1980s.

Among them are three Blacks,

one oriental, and six women.

SPEAKER: It's my pleasure

to introduce Guy Bluford.

All eyes on me alright

alright alright

GUY: When I applied, I wasn't

sure that I'd ever make it.

You'd read in the newspaper,

these people have been

selected for the astronaut

program and they all

leap tall buildings

with a single bound.

I went down to Houston and

I saw the competition and

I'm sort of saying, "Hey, I

want to see who these people are

that are better than I am."

ANNOUNCER: I'd like to welcome

Major Frederick Gregory

from the United

States Air Force.

Help him find the funk

FRED: At this time, my goals

in life were not something

specific like to be a pilot

or be a doctor or something.

I wanted to have fun

and make a contribution.

I was one of the first

Blacks in integrated schools

in Washington DC, the only one

in my class at the academy,

so if there were a barrier,

it would have to be

a big one to stop me.

(laughing)

Hey, yeah

Shine the spotlight on him!

Help him find the funk

ANNOUNCER: Chosen as a mission

specialist, Ronald McNair.

RON: Being a scientist, I see

it as something that's part of

man's nature to explore

as far as he can and

as deep as he can

into the unknown.

Becoming an astronaut is

something that I've wanted to

do for a long time, but I

didn't see how it was possible

until a mission specialist

position was created.

At that time, there was

nothing standing in my way

except to pursue it.

ANNOUNCER: To say that we're

pleased with the selection

is an understatement.

They are undoubtedly the best

looking group we've ever had

as astronauts, and that's

the 35 new astronauts.

(applause)

Help him find the funk

Ha da da dee da

hada hada da da

Help him find the funk

Most of all he need the funk

Everybody's got a little

light under the sun



ED: After I left the m*llitary,

I was very quiet and

I didn't say anything.

I was just numb.

And this was an interesting

time for me because

I didn't know what

to do with myself

after 13 years in the Air Force,

but I did have a

background in art

since I was a little bitty kid,

and so I wanted to do

something creative.

I had a construction company

at the time, and so I started

picking up all the junk from

my construction sites and

next thing you know, I got

the house all decorated

with my sculptures.

Lieutenant Governor George Brown

purchased one of my

little pieces of art.

He was elected our first Black

lieutenant governor in the

state of Colorado and he said,

"I've been watching

you with your art, and

they want a sculpture of me to

adorn the capitol building."

That started my art career

that I didn't know I was going

to be starting, to be

totally candid with you.

After I completed

the sculpture of him,

he awarded me a big project

for the state of Colorado,

a series that had to do with

the Black migration west,

and I asked him,

"What did they do?"

He got rather irate.

"What are you talking about?

Have you ever heard

of Harriet Tubman?"

And I was 42 years old and

I had never heard

of Harriet Tubman.

I grew up with basically

a white education and

I didn't realize that I had

been told every day of my life,

anything of reality that

we experienced today

was done by white people.

And it didn't come into

my reality what George was

talking about until I read

all, all this Black history

that I had didn't know existed.

That obviously had to change

my whole internal agenda

and I got very angry.

In the beginning, I never

thought about Black history,

but as this thing went along,

I began to realize the

power of, you know,

this storytelling, uh, idea,

and so my motivation

was 100,000% with

educating people.

RON: Times have changed to

the point where Black men

can enter areas that were

heretofore some sort of,

you might say, prohibited.

To some youth, particularly

in our youth who felt that

such goals were not

reachable or unattainable.

INTERVIEWER: Do you feel that

three is an adequate number

at this point in time?

RON: Well, certainly I don't

feel three is adequate.

I think as many as you can

get in, but three is a start.

Let's do it.



CHARLIE: Boy, Guy,

Ron, and Fred.

How are they similar?

They're all three Black.

They're all three male.

I wanna come back

CHARLIE: That is

about the end of it.

'Cause I like it like that

CHARLIE: Fred came from the

helicopter community and then

worked his way into fighters

while he was serving at

Langley as a test pilot.

And so Fred is the

classic NASA astronaut.

Your sweet phalanges

CHARLIE: Guy is not the

typical fighter pilot.

You know, we're accustomed

to fighter pilots who are

braggadocious and, and

boastful and everything.

That's not Guy.

Guy is an engineer

and an engineer first

and he'll tell you.

And so he was selected

as a mission specialist,

not as a, not as a pilot.

What I say

CHARLIE: And then Ron's

the brilliant engineer

with his doctorate

in laser physics.

He's a renaissance man.

GUY: I always admired the

fact that he went to MIT.

I, I would've been blown

out at MIT, you know.

Ah, ugh, whoo!

Let me stop procrastinating

CHARLIE: Fifth degree

black belt in karate,

could have been

a very successful

professional saxophone player.

That was Ron.

GUY: I was very thankful

of the fact that

when we came in in '78,

there were three of us,

but Fred and Ron

as well as myself,

all recognized that

one of us would be

the first Black astronaut.

REPORTER: The 35 candidates

begin two years of unisex,

interracial training at

the Johnson Space Center,

July 1st.

Those who pass will become

astronauts, ready for advanced

instruction as members

of the seven person crews

who will fly the Space

Shuttle in the 1980s.

FRED: There were 15 pilots

and 20 mission specialists of

very brilliant scientists

and engineers and

that's when we all started.

GUY: We had, uh, briefings

on how the shuttle flew.

These were classroom

instructions and

I assumed Fred would be the

first guy to fly in space,

'cause he's a test pilot.

Test pilots were the king and,

you know, mission specialists

were just those

lowly guys who ride

in the back of this vehicle.

FRED: Certainly, um, people say,

"Well, were you competing to

be the first Black astronaut?"

I don't remember competing,

but I'm told that

there was competition.

GUY: Everybody jockeyed

around to figure out,

how can I fly before such

and such and such and such.

It was sort of a, I'm better

than you if I fly before you.

And you were dealing

with people who knew

how to play the game.

(splash)

Each of the astronauts knew

who the decision maker was.

So everybody ran around

kissing the rump of this guy

named George Abbey,

and I did just the opposite.

I avoided the guy.

I figured the less he knew

about me, the better, you know.

I didn't really want to be

the first Black astronaut.

And then the other thing is,

Blufords are all introverts.

I am not a um, party-goer.

I treasure what

few friends I have.

I never joined the frat.

I'm not a frat guy.

I recognize I didn't want

all that hoopla, you know.

FRED: I would go to the gym

five days, six days a week.

(ball bouncing)

Guy was always there.

He was a runner.

I'm not a runner.

And so it was more, you

know, waving and saying, hi.

GUY: I don't bring my work home.

No.

I, I left it at work.

I had two kids that were going

into eighth and ninth grade.

They needed my time.

It's easy for me to

be an average guy.

Sometimes I need to

be reminded that I am

better than I think I am.

REPORTER: The flight of STS-8

is now about 18 hours away.

That's when Challenger

will be thrown into space.

Official liftoff time set

for 2:15 tomorrow morning.

It's the first nighttime

launch for the shuttle,

but not the only first

for this mission.

Colonel Guy Bluford

will make history when

the shuttle lifts off.

He'll become the first Black

American to fly in space.

ED: All through my training,

I was told by friends and

enemies alike, "You're 20

years too soon, buddy."

This is something that

has to be resolved by

the American public.

And sure enough, 20 years

after I went into the program,

Guy Bluford went up.

20 years.

(applause)

GUY: I was surprised

when I got selected,

but being the first

Black astronaut

was just a toss-up

between me and Ron McNair.

But then in the end, the

k*ller was I was a flyer.

Ron McNair was not a pilot.

MAN (over radio): T minus

11, ten, nine, eight, seven.

GUY: As the clock counts down,

the three main engines of the

shuttle light up and the

thing that strikes my mind is,

"Wow, this thing moves."

(laughing)

MAN (over radio): And the

shuttle has cleared the tower.

(engine roaring)

GUY: It takes an awful long

time for our society to change.

There's all of this inertia

that you have to overcome,

but we eventually

do it over time.

ASTRONAUT (over radio):

Standing by for

shuttle rocket separation.

MAN (over radio): Challenger,

Houston with you on TDRS.

ASTRONAUT (over radio): Houston,

Challenger loud and clear.

How do you read the CDR?

MAN (over radio): Roger.

Loud and clear also.

(radio chatter)

GUY: People ask me did I get

a spiritual uplifting, um,

one with nature, all that

sort, I said, "No, no."

On STS-8, my biggest concern

was do the best job possible.

GUY: You can see we

have a smooth spin up.

It spun all the way

up to 40 rpm and uh

stayed very stable

right at 40 rpm.

GUY: I was less concerned

about the hoopla associated

with a historical perspective.

I'll handle that

when I get down.

But I wanted to make sure I

did a good enough job that

when I got down

people would say,

"Bluford did a good

job and we can fly

African-Americans and we

don't have to sweat it."

MISSION CONTROL: Challenger,

Houston with you.

The president is on the line.

REAGAN (over radio):

Guys, congratulations.

You, I think, are paving

the way for many others and

you're making it plain

that we are in an era of

brotherhood here in our land.

We're all looking forward to

another successful mission and

to your safe landing here

in California on Labor Day.

INTERVIEWER: This

question is for Guy.

Could you reflect a little bit

back on your role and do you

think that your part in

the mission is helping to

pave the way for

other minorities?

GUY: I think the answer to

the second question is yes.

ANNOUNCER: Lieutenant

Colonel Guion S. Bluford.

GUY: From a historical

point of view, I feel as if

I'm opening the door for those

behind me and, uh, you know,

I just anticipate that

this will be more of a

normal operation than

an un-normal operation.



It took me a while to

recognize the importance

of being the first

African American.

And then I learned

about Ed Dwight.

INTERVIEWER: An interesting time

to note that a Black American

might have been into

space a long time earlier.

(applause)

What's your feeling

about Guy Bluford?

ED: That's incredible.

Yeah, he's done a very

outstanding job and

he's to be congratulated.

GUY: People look up to you

because you have done this,

even though you may

have questioned if you

really deserve it or not.

I'd made it because Ed

Dwight did his thing

and for me that was a biggie.



REAGAN: Modern day

heroes, like Guy Bluford,

are emerging and aspiring

new faith in our system and

new hope for the future.

FRED: When I went into

the astronaut program with

Ron and Guy,

I thought that we found this

torch and lit this torch.

But what we found was

that after Ed Dwight,

there were other

Black astronauts and

all of this history was

never, ever recorded.

Oh, this one's top secret.

That's when I learned about

a guy named Bob Lawrence.

JOURNALIST: Major Lawrence,

do yourself feel that this

is a tremendous step

forward in racial relations?

ROBERT: No, I don't

think this is especially

a tremendous step forward.

I think it's just another

one of the things that, uh,

we look forward to in this

country with respect to

the progress in civil rights.

CHARLIE: When we look at

the comparison between

Bob Lawrence and Ed Dwight,

Bob Lawrence was in

a classified program

and that was okay to people

who resisted Ed Dwight.

They could handle somebody

in a classified program

who may never be seen.

FRED: The MOL program was a

very secretive DOD program.

Those who were in the program

were all very successful

in their careers.

And so it was expected

that Bob Lawrence would be

the first Black astronaut.

(engine rumbling)

CHARLIE: For jet training, the

Air Force used the F104 and,

um, on this particular day,

Bob Lawrence was actually

training another pilot.

The student was flying

an approach, ex*cuted to

pull up a little bit late,

and Bob Lawrence was able

to call for him to eject.

So the student got

out of the airplane,

but Bob Lawrence was

not able to get out.

(engine rumbling)



BARBARA: After Bob was k*lled,

I got a letter from some

irate citizen that said that

they were glad that he was dead

because now there would

be no c*ons on the moon.

You know, mixed in with

the sympathy cards,

every once in a while you'd open

an envelope and here would be,

you know, a letter or a note

saying how happy they were

that the event had taken place.

FRED: He was only

in the program about

five or six months

and, um, it's a shame.

It really is a shame.

(papers rustling)

It's amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

And then I found out

that the Soviet Union

also had a Black astronaut.



ARNADO: Cuba was

the ninth country

that had the chance

to travel to space.

And I became

the cosmonaut number 97.

CHARLIE: Around the

same time that we had.

Guy and Fred and Ron,

there was a Cuban who was

the first person of color

to fly when he flew

with the Russians.

And in the case of civilian

space and space exploration,

the Soviet Union was our enemy,

but the Soviets were

very conscious of the

racial disparity that we have

here in the United States.

And so a program was formed

to show that they were

allowing people of all

creeds, colors, persuasions

to have this opportunity

to go to space.

That was really important,

even if it were just

one person at a time.

Tamayo was the Soviet

version of Ed Dwight.

They both were selected

for propaganda purposes,

but the Soviets

made that history,

not the United States.

(speaking foreign language).

CHARLIE: We were competing

with the Soviet Union on

the international stage where

you wanted to demonstrate

that you were the power.

So we never recognized

the importance of

his accomplishment.

ARNADO: In the United States

everything that had to

do with Cuban success,

they restricted it.

CHARLIE: I didn't know

anything at all about Tamayo.

FRED: I have no idea.

GUY: I didn't know

who Arnado was.

I know where Cuba is, 90

miles south of Florida.

That's about as much

as I know about Cuba.

ARNADO: No media has published

the results on television.

They say that it's a Cuban tale.

FRED: As you begin to look

back and you see a lot of

our history was never known.

And so here I thought I was

initiating all of this stuff

because I'd never read about

it, never heard about it,

and then I realized, no,

I'm just in line, you know.



(cheering, applause)

GUY: Once I became

famous so to speak,

I could have easily taken off.

No.

My job was to break

open the barrier,

but my accomplishment

would not mean much

unless other Black

astronauts fly.

I thought I had the

responsibility to make sure

Ron fly, make sure Fred flies,

make sure Charlie flies.

And I'm a big time, "Hey, I

want to make sure you fly."



GUY: At that point, there

were an awful lot of missions

going on, so we were busier

than a one-armed bandit.

Pack your grip,

takin' you on a trip

CHARLIE: When Ron was getting

ready for his first flight,

a lot of his training happened

at the Kennedy Space Center

in Florida, and he needed

a way to get there.

And I found out that we both

grew up in South Carolina,

so I volunteered to

be Ron's chauffeur.

On the groove line tonight

FRED: When I got my

first assignment,

my job was a pilot.

Ooh, ooh

Get this train

FRED: The mission itself

was a laboratory mission.

That was exciting to

me because I knew that

what they then learned would

be in books or in lectures.

That is the thing that

keeps you excited.

It's the thrill of discovery.

GUY: I did not want to

be a one-time flyer.

Leave your worries behind

GUY: Plus I enjoyed

flying in space.

So I elected to fly my second

flight in October of '85,

and then there was

Charlie Bolden.

Ooh, ooh

Yeah tonight

CHARLIE: I was in the

second group of people

selected to fly

the space shuttle.

And when I think about

my journey into space,

I contend everybody who

gets to see the planet

from that perspective

will be changed forever.

Tonight

Rain, shine, don't mind

We're ridin' on the

groove line tonight

CHARLIE: Once you get to

space, you are literally

trying to fall back to earth

and centrifugal force won't

let you, and so you feel

like you're floating.

So that was the feel,

the sense of feel.

The knockout punch though

was the sense of sight.

This planet is incredibly

breathtaking and

looking through the

cameras that God gave us,

it is unlike anything

that you can see through

even the best cameras.

None of them compare

to the human eye.

GUY: One of the things that

really surprised me was

how small the earth was.

We went around the

earth every 90 minutes.

FRED: Some of the very smart

scientists went to orbit

knowing what they were going

to see, and I found in many

cases they didn't know

what the truth was.

That was exciting to me

because that began to justify

the reason why we were

doing these things,

was to learn and discover.

CHARLIE: I remember the

first time I looked at the

continent of Africa, I cried.

I had studied for a year,

preparing myself to be

able to look down and see

Senegal and Nigeria and

all these other countries,

and I couldn't tell one

country from the other

because there were no lines.

You looked at that and

you recognize the way God

intended the planet to be.

We all knew it was going to be

something, but we had no clue

that it was going to have

the impact that it had.

RON: No words.

I'm sorry there just

aren't any words.

There just aren't any words.

The blacks are blacker,

the blues are bluer,

and the whole experience of

watching sunrises in a

matter of a few seconds

and set just as fast

is mind-boggling.

CHARLIE: Nine days after

I flew my first flight,

Ron and his crew strapped

in for his second mission.

PHOTOGRAPHER: All

right, now ready to go.

Okay, up on the stool

there. Real tall.

BARBARA: Up here?

FRANCIS: We need the

jackets zipped or

you want to leave them?

PHOTOGRAPHER: Why

don't we zip them up?

Casual, big smile.

We caught Ron at a good time.

FRANCIS: Alison,

how about smiling?

RON: I only brought one smile.

I'm going to save that one.

BARBARA: Ron, you

like you're thinking.

FRANCIS: Ron's going to

save it for the real thing.

(applause)

MAN (over radio): This is

Mission Control Houston,

all orbiter systems continue

to function normally and.

Mission Control is ready

for the launch this morning.

FRED: In the space program,

everybody's got

different jobs to do.

My role on the Challenger

mission 51L was as the

lead Cap Com,

capsule communicator.

MAN (over radio):

T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.

We have main engines start.

4, 3, 2, 1, and liftoff.

Liftoff called the 25th

Space Shuttle mission and

it has cleared the tower.

FRED: All of the experts

in Mission Control have

monitors in front and

it's a lot of data,

and I'm looking at a monitor

behind the flight door.

MAN (over radio): We got 65.

MAN (over radio): 65, final.

MAN (over radio): (inaudible)

confirms, thank you.

MAN (over radio): Challenger,

go with throttle up.

(radio chatter)

FRED: And I see this,

this big expl*si*n.

And I wanted to immediately

grab the microphone and say

something like,

"Godspeed, Challenger,"

but I didn't, and I

regret it to this day.

CHARLIE: Um...

You know, life changed

forever for a lot of us.



For me, I had to make a

decision like everybody

in the office, "Was

I going to stay?"

You know, "Is this really

what I want to do?"

And um, it took, it took me,

I tell people it

took me a nanosecond.

I mean, like, really quick.

I thought about it and

instantly I said, you know,

"Ron would be really pissed

if I walked away now, if, um,

if I didn't go to work and

figure out what went wrong

so that it never happens again."

To be quite honest, Ron is the

reason that I'm here today.

Had it not been for meeting

Ron, I probably would've

never even thought about

applying for the space program.

1978, when I started

test pilot school,

was also coincidentally

the year that NASA selected

the first group of space

shuttle astronauts.

One day, three or

four NASA T-38s,

each of them carrying

two astronauts,

pulled up on the flight line,

and out of the backseat

jumped this Black guy.

I knew there were three

Blacks in the program,

but it was not until I

physically met Ron McNair

that I experienced the

power of representation.

I rushed over to meet him and

greet him, just mesmerized.

He and I spent the weekend

just talking about what it was

like in his training and how

exciting it was and all that.

And the last thing

he asked me, he said,

"Hey, are you gonna

apply for the program?"

I told him, "Not on your life."

I said, "Ron, they'd

never pick me."

He looked at me with this

incredulous look on his face,

got a scowl almost, and said,

"That is the dumbest

thing I ever heard."

He said, "How do you

know if you don't ask?"

So I just kind of stood there

startled and watched Ron

get in his airplane and

blast back to Houston.

(engine roaring)

I went home and

I said, you know,

"I think I'm gonna apply

for the space program."

Ron was a mentor to me, much

as my mom and dad had been.

He was also a brother

in a lot of senses.

You don't see too many

people like Ron McNair.

JESSE: What lessons do we

learn from this trauma?

America at its best, two

women, a Jew, a Black,

an Asian, white males,

at our best as a nation.

Progress always comes

after sacrifice.

GUY: In the astronaut office,

all the people that had been

assigned to crews, all

of that was canceled.

The whole agency came to a stop.

We didn't know what to do.

(helicopter whirring)

(engine rumbling)

In my case, I had good

friends on the shuttle.

That's why I stayed.

CHARLIE: Within weeks, I

got assigned to take over

the Safety Division at

the Johnson Space Center.



It gave me something

to do to feel that

I was contributing

to the recovery.



GUY: Charlie was a brand

new guy in the office,

so to speak.

I was on the action

investigation team.

We looked at everything.

And I thought, of all

the things I could do

to honor those people is to

make sure that we find out

what happens and we fly safely.

FLIGHT CONTROLLER (over radio):

And lift-off, lift-off.

America's return to space as

Discovery clears the tower.

CHARLIE: And we did

return to flight.

And that was really

important that we showed that

we could get knocked down,

we could figure things out,

and we could get back up.

(engine roaring)

In addition to that,

representation becomes

critically important to help

us keep moving down that path.



MAE: We are now at the point

where we can bring together

lots of different types of

people and make sure that

we're using all the

talents that we have.

BERNARD: As a Black astronaut,

we are symbols of what we can

accomplish as a people,

despite what others

may think of us.

(applause)

CHARLIE: I strongly believe

that firsts are not important,

if there are no seconds and

thirds and fourths, and that

only comes when you have a

diverse workforce that is

representative of the

nation as a whole.



I want the history books

to represent everyone.

I don't want it to

represent just one side

the way it does today.

LELAND: When you fly

in space, you feel this

profound connection to the

legacy of those that have

been there before you and

actually helped you get there.

But this sense of legacy

was never more apparent

than in 2020 when Victor

Glover was in space.

VICTOR: While I was in

space, I thought about legacy

quite often,

because it is a very

small group of people

that can truly

understand what it's like

to be a Black astronaut.

WOMAN (over film): Astronaut

Victor Glover has spent

the past month and a half on

the International Space Station

on a long-term mission.

VICTOR: Growing up in

America as a person of color,

there's this double

consciousness pulling

in different directions.

That tension, um, doesn't

get any easier, you know,

when you get to be an astronaut.

BERNARD: As Black people in

this country, we have always

had to navigate

these two worlds,

one foot in the Black community

and the other in

the white community.

And it is not a choice.

It's something that

we have to do if

we're going to be successful.

CROWD: I can't breathe! I

can't breathe! I can't breathe!

MAN: The 12th day

of demonstrations in

dozens of cities, one of

the biggest nationwide

days of protest since the

k*lling of George Floyd

in police custody.

VICTOR: The Derek Chauvin

trial over the k*lling of

George Floyd happened

while I was in space.

I took a painting of

George Floyd with me.

It was right next to me for

six months, for 167 days.

It is difficult when,

you know, you want to be

a part of the movement, but

I also am a m*llitary officer

and a NASA astronaut, and that

comes with a responsibility.

Trying to rectify the

bittersweet nature of this

country that can send me to

space as its representative,

but also has allowed these

things to happen to Black men

and women, more so than

in any other people,

it was an overwhelming

and emotional time for me.

(crickets chirping)

LELAND: There's Victor in space.

When I think back on

this really tough time

in our country, I think

about what I was feeling

down here on Earth

and I felt numb.

I could only imagine what

my brother, Victor Glover,

was feeling up there.

LELAND (over phone):

Hey, everyone, how you doing?

Um, it's been a

tough, uh, few days.

I, I keep talking about that

juxtaposition of doing this

most incredible, audacious,

heroic thing and we get

people up to space and,

uh, really hard stuff.

Rocket science is pretty hard,

but civil rights in our country,

it ain't rocket science.



CHARLIE: For me,

this is like deja vu.

It's frustrating and angering,

and you look back and you say,

"I cannot believe that all

the things that we worked for,

we're going backwards."

LELAND: I was watching the

news, thinking about that

could have been me.

That's the gravity of

this situation, right?

It could have been any of us.



VICTOR: There were a lot

of emotions and things that

I tried to do to unpack that.

And for me, it helps

to talk to other folks

who have had to deal

with it, as well.

WOMAN (over radio):

Station, this is Houston.

Are you ready for the event?

VICTOR: Houston,

this is Station.

I am ready for the event.

LELAND: In the midst of all

of this, Victor reached out

to the Black astronauts

to have a call.

I was blown away to

see all of these names

pop up on the screen,

Mae Jemison, Charlie Bolden,

Guy Bluford.

VICTOR: They were all saying,

"What can we do for you?

How can we help you?

How can we support you?"

And that just, they were

giving me exactly what

I needed by just being

there in fellowship.

LELAND: That was a really

transformational call for me.

Until the Victor thing happened,

I wasn't talking to

Fred or Guy, or the,

I mean, if I bumped into them,

we would maybe say, "Hi,"

or whatever, but it

wasn't like we were having

some big legacy discussion and,

"Hey, we got your

back. You can do this."

It wasn't like that.

But when Victor went

to space, it changed.

CHARLIE: We all recognized how

difficult it is to get where

we have gotten and want to

make sure that you've got

all the support that you can.

VICTOR: We have a little

nickname for that group.

We call them the Afronauts.

And so, when I was able to,

to have the video conference

with the Afronauts, the main

thing that I walked away

from that experience with,

is how important it is

to have that group and

to be actively connected.



BERNARD: Many years ago,

Ed Dwight called me up and

told me that he had been

commissioned to do a memorial

for African-Americans

in Texas, and, uh,

he described the concept from,

you know, sl*ve to space.

ED: On the Texas Memorial,

there's only one message that

I'm about, and it has to do

with the valid place that

African-Americans should have in

this whole American experience,

because every one of my

memorials has a storyline

to let people know that

we are people of action

and when something

has needed to be done,

whether it's for the

larger community,

for our own community,

we've been there.

BERNARD: Ed told me how the

first Blacks arrived in Texas,

also as explorers of

this new territory,

how it led to

eventually the future.

It really represented not

only the development of

this country, but also

where we're headed.

CHARLIE: sl*very is a

critically important part of

the idea of this nation.

It was something that we had

to figure out how to overcome

if we were really going to

be the kind of nation that

we think we want to be.

CHAIRMAN: Good morning.

I will start with

Senator Graham.

GRAHAM: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The President has nominated

someone extraordinarily

talented and qualified for

the new NASA administrator.

We inspire the next generation

of young Americans to think

big and there is no better

example of what you can do

in America than what Major

General Bolden has achieved.

So, with that, I heartily

recommend his nomination.

ED: Charlie had me at his

Senate hearings, so all of a

sudden all kind of wonderful

things started happening.

CHARLIE: I also would like

to take this opportunity to

acknowledge the very special

person, Mr. Ed Dwight,

who while not actually

becoming an astronaut,

he was a trailblazer in

the attempt to break the

color barrier in America's

astronaut program.

(applause)

ED: Once Charlie

Bolden took the helm,

NASA finally gave me a tag.

They called me a pioneer,

and so that's the name

I'm assigned, a space pioneer.



CHARLIE: And I'm an American

citizen who really believes

in the idea that

is this country.



CHARLIE: And ideas are

dependent upon people to,

you know, to execute them

or to carry them out.

Black history is

American history.

We forget it at our peril.



ED (over computer):

Uh, Victor, can you hear me?

VICTOR: I can. How you doing?

ED (over computer): I'm trying

to hang in there, buddy.

ED: So, Victor, where are

you? Are you in Houston?

VICTOR (over computer):

I'm in Houston. Yes.

I'm in our Public

Affairs Building.

ED (over computer): Oh, gotcha.

VICTOR: But I'm happy

to do this today.

This is like, this

is an honor, yeah.

ED (over computer): Yeah.

VICTOR: All right,

Mr. Dwight, are you ready?

ED: I am ready.

MAN (over radio):

Station, this is Houston.

Are you ready for the event?

JESSICA: Station is

ready for the event.

VICTOR: Station, this is Ike.

Watty, can you hear me?

JESSICA: I've got you

loud and clear, Ike.

How me?

VICTOR: Awesome. I have

you loud and clear.

It's great to talk to you.

And so, Jessica Watkins, I

would love to introduce to you

my good friend and

mentor, Ed Dwight.

Ed, please say, hi, to,

to Jessica or as

we call her, Watty.

ED: Oh, well, hello, Jessica.

This is so exciting to me to

see because back in the day,

uh, they, they were saying

that Blacks are too ignorant

to be flying in space to, uh,

to hold these

important positions.

And I'm smitten, uh,

by, uh, by the fact that

you're up there doing all

these wonderful things.

JESSICA: It is an

honor to meet you.

We are just so grateful

for the path that you laid

for us to follow behind,

so thank you so much for

everything you've done.

ED: Oh my God, thanks

for remembering me.

(laughing)

(music plays through credits)