Joseph Acaba has just become the first Puerto Rican to go to space. Who have been other minority firsts in space?
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M$5 Answers
First woman in space: Valentina Tereshkova--1963, Soyuz 6 (Soviet)
interesting: in 1964 she gave birth to Elena Nikolayev, the first
baby whose parents had both visited space
First American woman in space: Sally Ride--June 1983, space shuttle
Challenger
First black man in space: Cuban Col. Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez--Salyut 6,
1980 (Soviet)
First African-American in space: Guion "Guy" Bluford--August 30, 1983,
space shuttle Challenger
First African-American woman in space: Mae C. Jamison--September 12,
1992, space shuttle Endeavour to Spacelab
First Hispanic in space: Franklin Chang-Díaz--January 1986, space shuttle
Columbia
First Hispanic female in space: Ellen Ochoa--April 1993, space shuttle
Discovery
First Asian-American in space: Ellison Onizuka--January 24, 1985, space
shuttle Discovery (died in space shuttle Challenger explosion,
January 28, 1986)
First Indian-American and First Asian-American woman in space: Kalpana
Chawla--November 19, 1997, space shuttle Columbia (died in
Columbia entry disaster, February 3, 2003)
http://www.who2.com/femalefirstflights.html
http://space.about.com/b/2003/08/30/guion-guy-bluford-first-african-america...
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/jemison-mc.html
http://www.britannica.com/hispanic_heritage/browse?browseId=251042
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/onizuka.html
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chawla.html
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M$
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If a flight director for the International Space Station counts, then read the following for more on "NASA's First Black Mission-Control Flight Director":
http://collectspace.com/ubb/Forum38/HTML/000281.html
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Ellison Onizuka- First Asian American in space - January 24, 1985
Kalpana Chawla- First Asian American female in space
John Herrington- First Native American in space- November 11, 2002
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On January 28, 1986, Christie McAuliffe boarded Space Shuttle Challenger with the other six crewmembers of STS-51-L. Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of all seven crew members. According to NASA, it is in part because of the excitement over McAuliffe's presence on Challenger that the accident had such a significant effect on the nation. Many schoolchildren were viewing the launch live, and media coverage of the accident was extensive.
I still remember the moment that the explosion occurred. I was doing an internship in a law office and we had all assembled in the conference room to watch the launch. It was tremendously exciting and we were all thrilled to be watching this historic event. One of the top ten final nominees had been one of our own local teachers but she had just barely missed the top spot. She was still flown back to the NASA for space training and was there the morning of the launch.
The countdown was thrilling and we were all talking in excitement as the shuttle climbed into space. We were expecting to see it disappear into the atmosphere and the room was beginning to clear - just the interns and central supplie type workers left in the room when the explosion occurred. It took everyone by surprise and we sat there motionless and silent like we didn't really know what we were seeing. It just couldn't be real - but it was real. And there was no going back.
read the entire article about this event in history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_McAuliffe
It would be 21 years before another teacher successfully reached space. Barbara Morgan, McAuliffe's backup that day in 1986, became a professional astronaut in January 1998. Morgan flew on the space shuttle mission STS-118 aboard Endeavour (the orbiter that replaced Challenger) to the International Space Station on August 8, 2007.
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Thanks for the wonderfully detailed answer and citations! Here's one to add, if we're going to include religious minorities: Boris Valynov, Russian cosmonaut and first Jew is space.
Source:
http://www.thespacebuff.com/history/the-flaming-re-entry-of-boris-volynov/