Hero Robert Lawrence

America's first African-American astronaut was Air Force Major Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. Although he never went into outer space, this Chicago-born former test pilot did research on spacecraft re-entry procedures that would be used by the Space Shuttle.

Maj. Lawrence died in 1967, the same year in which he entered the astronaut program, at Edwards Air Force Base, CA, when the Starfighter jet in which he was acting as an instructor went down. The student pilot successfully ejected.

Lawrence was a highly accomplished man, with a 1965 Ph.D. in chemistry from Ohio State at a time when African Americans were still only beginning to break the bonds of discrimination.

What made his name known to many Americans at the time lasted all too briefly for Maj. Lawrence, who was a heroic figure nonetheless.