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RONALD E. McNAIR
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Born October 21, 1950 in Lake
City, South Carolina. Ronald received a bachelor’s degree in
physics from North Carolina A&T State University and a Ph.D. in
physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. McNair and
his wife, Cheryl Moore McNair, have two children, Reginald and
Joy. |
Dr. McNair was selected
as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1978. He first flew as a mission
specialist on STS 41-B in 1983, thereby becoming the second African
American in space. He logged 191 hours flight time and was responsible
for deploying one of the communication satellites for that mission. Dr.
McNair was chosen as a mission specialist on Challenger STS 51-L, which
was destroyed one minute and 13 seconds after its launch.
Ronald E. McNair made the ultimate sacrifice and lost his life in
service to the nation and the space program on January 28, 1986 at 35
years of age.
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