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 African- 
American 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 com-
bat missions, logged over 5,000 hours on numerous air-
craft, 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 mis-
sion; 
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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 Get-
away 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 coopera-
tive D–1 Spacelab mission that was dedicated to advanc-
ing our understanding of the human vestibular and ori-
entation systems and to conducting microgravity research 
in materials science, life sciences, and communication and 
navigation; 
Whereas Dr. Bluford went on to successfully complete 2 addi-
tional 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 ex-
periments; 
Whereas in remarking on his pioneering role as the first Afri-
can-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 oth-
ers 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 lead-
ership positions in private industry and space-related or-
ganizations: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) salutes the 25th anniversary of the pio-
neering accomplishments of Dr. Guion ‘‘Guy’’ S. 
Bluford, Jr. as the first African-American in space; 
and 
(2) extends its gratitude and deep appreciation 
for Dr. Bluford’s dedication, commitment, and excel-
lence as an astronaut and a leader in support of the 
Nation’s space program. 
Æ 
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