On day in 1986, I was in lower elementary school but I was
sick that day (it may have been what as now called a "Mental Health" day (my mother allowed some of
those)). I was sitting there watching TV and the news was all a buzz because a
Space Shuttle, The Challenger, was going up. That was exciting to me because a black man was on
that shuttle. I went to an all-black elementary school & all-black church in a predominantly
black area so that was a big deal. Also he was going to play music up there. They
did the count down and it went up but it was an explosion. My grandmother
explained to me that the shuttle blew up and the astronauts died. Even as a
child that hurt my little heart. I still get sad thinking about that day. Also,
to top it all off in an isolated event 30 minutes our neighbors’ house caught
on fire and burned. That sad day will always stay with me.
The black astronaut was named Ronald McNair. He was not the
1st black astronaut (actually the 2nd to fly in space).
The 1st was a man named Guion Bluford. McNair
was the first black astronaut to die on a mission. Many schools, scholarships
(local, state & federal), buildings are named after Ronald McNair but very
few know who he was.
Born in 195 in South Carolina, Ronald McNair was the valedictorian
of his high school class and was magna cum lade with a bachelors in engineering physics. He had a Ph. D. from
MIT in physics. He was also a member of the historical Greek fraternity Omega
Psi Phi. In 1978, Dr. McNair was carefully chosen as one of thirty-five applicants
from a pool of 10,000 for the NASA astronaut program. McNair was an
accomplished saxophone player. Actually before the fateful shuttle blast, he
worked with composer Jean Michel Jarre on a piece of music for his upcoming
album named Rendez-Vous. McNair playing his saxophone was anticipated to be
recorded on the Challenger. It would have made McNair's solo the first original
piece of music to have been recorded in space. The last of the Rendez-Vous, Last
Rendez-Vous was re titled Ron's Piece in his honor.
Yes, a harmonica
was played on the Gemini earlier but a saxophone played in space would have
been so cool. So, I salute Dr. Ronald McNair on today. Maybe there is a future
Ronald McNair that will get to play their saxophone in space, one day. I think he would
be proud.
As Always, Talking to You in Adult Terms
