Commander Victor Glover Makes History as 1st African American Astronaut to Live on International Space Station

[Official NASA/Commercial Crew Portrait – Victor Glover. Photo Date: July 31, 2018. Photographer: Robert Markowitz]

Victor Glover is making history as first African American NASA astronaut to live on the International Space Station. Commander Glover and three other astronauts left Earth on Sunday in a capsule called Resilience and will spend about six months aboard the space station.

Meet Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover), your pilot for today's flight. #LaunchAmerica pic.twitter.com/zWMmz1y9eG

— NASA (@NASA) November 15, 2020

Glover is not the first African American astronaut to visit the space station, but previous members were parts of space shuttle crews that only stayed briefly on ISS.

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Southern California native Glover is a graduate of California Polytechnic State University and holds three master’s degrees — in systems engineering, in-flight test engineering,  and military operational art and science.

Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first Black American in space in 1983 when he flew as part of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger. The second, Ron McNair, died three years later when the shuttle exploded alongside six other astronauts. Mae Jemison became the first Black American woman in space in 1992.