IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1466 

Honoring Dr. Guion S. ‘‘Guy’’ Bluford, Jr., and the 25th anniversary of 

his historic flight as the first African-American in space. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 

Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland submitted the following resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Science and Technology 

RESOLUTION 

Honoring Dr. Guion S. ‘‘Guy’’ Bluford, Jr., and the 25th 

anniversary of his historic flight as the first AfricanAmerican in space. 

Whereas Dr. Guion S. ‘‘Guy’’ Bluford, Jr., born in West 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was trained as an aerospace 

engineer and an Air Force pilot, conducted several combat missions, logged over 5,000 hours on numerous aircraft, conducted scientific research on computational fluid 

dynamics, and became a National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA) astronaut in 1979; 

Whereas in the early morning hours of August 30, 1983, Dr. 

Bluford became the first African-American to enter outer 

space as a crew member of the STS–8 space shuttle mission; 


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•HRES 1466 IH 

Whereas Dr. Bluford’s pioneering STS–8 flight was the first 

mission to both launch and land at night; 

Whereas this mission successfully deployed a satellite, tested 

operations of the shuttle’s robotic arm, and released Getaway Special canisters to support science experiments; 

Whereas on October 30, 1985, Dr. Bluford launched with the 

crew of STS 61–A, the first shuttle crew to include 8 

members, to conduct the United States-German cooperative D–1 Spacelab mission that was dedicated to advancing our understanding of the human vestibular and orientation systems and to conducting microgravity research 

in materials science, life sciences, and communication and 

navigation; 

Whereas Dr. Bluford went on to successfully complete 2 additional shuttle missions with the space shuttle Discovery’s 

launch of the STS–39 on April 28, 1991, and the STS– 

53 on December 2, 1992; 

Whereas among his other technical assignments, Dr. Bluford 

worked on space shuttle systems, the shuttle robotic arm, 

payload safety and flight software verification in the 

Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory and the Flight 

Systems Laboratory, and on Spacelab systems and experiments; 

Whereas in remarking on his pioneering role as the first African-American in space, Dr. Bluford recounted, ‘‘I wanted 

to set the standard, do the best job possible so that other 

people would be comfortable with African-Americans in 

space and African-Americans would be proud of being 

participants in the space program . . . and encourage others to do the same.’’; and 


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•HRES 1466 IH 

Whereas in 1993, Dr. Bluford left NASA and retired as a 

Colonel in the Air Force to continue his distinguished 

service to the United States space program through leadership positions in private industry and space-related organizations: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) salutes the 25th anniversary of the pio3 neering accomplishments of Dr. Guion ‘‘Guy’’ S. 

4 Bluford, Jr. as the first African-American in space; 

5 and 

6 (2) extends its gratitude and deep appreciation 

7 for Dr. Bluford’s dedication, commitment, and excel8 lence as an astronaut and a leader in support of the 

9 Nation’s space program. 

Æ 


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