{"id":50393,"date":"2023-10-17T09:59:32","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T09:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/996243b5-ee67-458c-8232-463afa2f7058"},"modified":"2023-10-17T10:32:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T10:32:32","slug":"mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 12 September 1992, Jemison became the first Black woman to fly in space. <\/p>

By Ezzy Pearson\n <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 17 October 2023 at 09:59 AM<\/p>

\n\n

When Mae Jemison was 12 years old, she watched enraptured as Neil Armstrong took his first steps across the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11<\/a> landing.<\/p>

But there was one thing that upset her: none of the people being sent into space looked like her.<\/p>

Later in life, she would be the one to change that.<\/p>

On 12 September 1992, Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to fly in space.<\/p>

Women astronauts<\/a> who changed spaceflight forever.<\/strong><\/em><\/li>
How long does it take to get to space?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li><\/ul>Mae Jemison’s historic flight saw her become the first African American woman to travel into space. Here, Jemison looks out the aft flight deck ports on Space Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-47 mission. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>
“As a little girl growing up on the south side of Chicago in the \u201860s I always knew I was going to be in space,” Jemison said in a 2013 speech at Duke University.<\/p>
There was, however, one Black female space-farer Jemison could turn to as a role model in her youth, albeit a fictional one: Star Trek<\/i>\u2019s Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols<\/a>.<\/p>
Encouraged by her example, Jemison pursued the sciences, eventually attaining her medical degree in 1981.<\/p>
$\"Nichelle$
Actor Nichelle Nichols pictured at Mission Control. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Mae Jemison’s early career<\/strong><\/h2>
During her early career, Jemison served as a general practitioner and conducted relief work throughout Africa with the Peace Corps<\/p>
She helped research vaccines with the Centre for Disease Control and, somehow, also found time to learn Russian, Japanese and Swahili.<\/p>
Then in 1985, Sally Ride<\/a> became the first American woman to fly in space, rekindling Jemison\u2019s long-held dreams.<\/p>
“I picked up the phone. Called down to Johnson Space Center. I said ‘I would like to be an astronaut’. They didn\u2019t laugh! I turned in the application,” Jemison told the website The Mary Sue<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>
Jemison joins NASA<\/strong><\/h2> $\"Mae$
Mae Jemison suits up for mission STS-47. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>
In 1987, 2,000 people applied to join NASA\u2019s Astronaut Group 12.15 were accepted, including Jemison.<\/p>
After completing her training, in 1989 she was assigned to STS-47, a joint mission with the Japanese space agency on which she would conduct a myriad of materials and life science experiments alongside her fellow astronauts.<\/p>
After a three-year wait, Jemison finally achieved her dream on 12 September 1992 when the Space Shuttle<\/a> Endeavour blasted off on mission STS-47.<\/p>
<\/div><\/figure>Mae Jemison spent 8 days in space, orbiting Earth 127 times.<\/p>As a nod to the woman who inspired her, Jemison would open communications every shift by repeating Uhura\u2019s signature phrase, “Hailing frequencies open”.<\/p>Keen to represent people who hadn\u2019t been seen in space before, she brought several artefacts with her.<\/p>This includeda statue from the women\u2019s society of Bundu in West Africa and a pennant from the first African American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"794\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/09\/Mae_Jemison-79fc2ad-e1662452357800.jpg\" alt=\"Astronaut Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space during mission STS-47, September 1992. Credit: NASA\" class=\"wp-image-40852\" title=\"Astronaut Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space during mission STS-47, September 1992. Credit: NASA\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jemison logged over 190 hours on STS-47, her first and only mission. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 id=\"h-life-after-nasa\">Life after NASA<\/strong><\/h2>Mae Jemison returned to Earth on 20 September, completing what would be her only flight.<\/p>In 1993 she left NASA but continued to advocate for science education, particularly among minority students.<\/p>Since then she has founded the Jemison Group Inc, which investigates the social and cultural impacts of technological advancements.<\/p>And the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence (named after her mother) which helps children to develop \u2018personal excellence\u2019<\/p>Jemison has also taken professorships at Dartmouth College and Cornell University.<\/p><h2 id=\"h-mae-jemison-star-trek-appearance\">Mae Jemison Star Trek appearance<\/strong><\/h2>Jemison\u2019s space journey came full circle in 1993 when LeVar Burton, the actor who played Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/i>, discovered Jemison was a fan of the show and invited her to appear.<\/p>She played Lieutenant Palmer in a cameo in the episode Second Chances, the first real astronaut to appear on the show.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"886\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/09\/GettyImages-1408773407-941be4e-e1662452573470.jpg\" alt=\"Nichelle Nichols and Dr. Mae Jemison at Silicon Valley Comic Con, California, USA in 2018. Photo By Paul Chinn\/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images.\" class=\"wp-image-111706\" title=\"Nichelle Nichols and Dr. Mae Jemison at Silicon Valley Comic Con, California, USA in 2018. Photo By Paul Chinn\/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nichelle Nichols and Dr. Mae Jemison at Silicon Valley Comic Con, California, USA in 2018. Photo By Paul Chinn\/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Two decades later, in 2012, she took on the task of ensuring the future portrayed on Star Trek<\/i> becomes a reality, when her foundation was awarded the 100 Year Starship project, an initiative to push forward the progress of human spaceflight to another star within the next 100 years.<\/p>“We need to make sure we\u2019re using the full wealth of human talent: across ethnicity, across gender, across geography, across disciplines,” Mae Jemison said to PBS\u2019s Nova<\/i> programme in 2015.<\/p>“All the capabilities that are needed for a successful journey to another star system by humans, are all the capabilities that we need to sustain ourselves as humans on this planet.<\/p>“And so we believe pursuing an extraordinary tomorrow creates a better world today.”<\/p>This article originally appeared in the September 2022 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On 12 September 1992, Jemison became the first Black woman to fly in space. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":50394,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/10\/mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space.jpg",1200,794,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/10\/mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/10\/mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/10\/mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space-768x508.jpg",768,508,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/10\/mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space-1024x678.jpg",800,530,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/10\/mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space.jpg",1200,794,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/10\/mae-jemison-the-first-african-american-woman-in-space.jpg",1200,794,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"On 12 September 1992, Jemison became the first Black woman to fly in space.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/50393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}