Mae Jemison Made History as First Black Woman in Space on September 12, 1992

On September 12, 1992, NASA astronaut Mae Jemison made history by becoming the first African American woman to travel to space. Her launch aboard the space shuttle Endeavour marked a significant milestone for diversity within the agency and for Black astronauts worldwide.

Jemison’s journey to the cosmos was the result of a multifaceted career. Born in Alabama and raised in Chicago, she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University, where she also studied African American Studies, before obtaining a medical doctorate from Cornell University. Before joining NASA, she served as a Peace Corps medical officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia from 1983 to 1985. She was working as a general practitioner when she applied to become an astronaut.

NASA did not select a Black woman for spaceflight until nine years after it sent its first Black man, Guion Bluford, into orbit in 1983. The first woman flew on the agency’s seventh space shuttle mission in 1983, but it took until 1992 for Jemison to join the corps for the STS-47 mission, the 50th space shuttle flight.

As a mission specialist, Jemison spent eight days in orbit, logging 190 hours, 30 minutes, and 23 seconds. During the mission, she oversaw 44 experiments for Japan and the United States conducted inside the Spacelab module and served as co-investigator on a bone cell study. STS-47 remained her only spaceflight before she retired from NASA in 1993.

Jemison has long cited early inspiration from popular culture, noting her fascination with space began with her childhood admiration for Lt. Uhura from “Star Trek.” In 1993, that inspiration came full circle when she appeared as a lieutenant on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the episode “Second Chances,” becoming the first astronaut to make a cameo appearance on the franchise.

After leaving NASA, she founded the Jemison Group, a technology consulting firm. Her contributions to science and culture have been widely recognized, including being featured as an official Lego minifigure in the Women of NASA set in 2017 and leading the 100-Year Starship project, which aims to develop the technology for interstellar travel.