Ronald E. McNair

Astronaut and physicist

• Born: October 12, 1950
• Birthplace: Lake City, South Carolina
• Died: January 28, 1986
• Place of death: Cape Canaveral, Florida

McNair was the second African American astronaut to fly into space. He was a mission specialist on the Challenger flight, mission 51-L, that exploded just after liftoff, killing everyone onboard. McNair also published an array of research on laser and satellite innovation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Early Life

Ronald Erwin McNair was born in Lake City, South Carolina, to Pearl and Carl McNair. He studied martial arts, earning a fifth-degree black belt in karate. After graduating from Carver High School in 1967, McNair enrolled at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, where he studied physics. He became a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity and earned Presidential Scholar honors from 1967 to 1971 for academic achievement.

In 1971, McNair graduated magna cum laude and was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doctoral program in physics. He also was awarded a three-year Ford Foundation Fellowship. In 1975, McNair began developing original research in laser physics. His laser experiments led him to do research at the École d’Été de Physique Théorique in Les Houches, France. This research experience afforded McNair the opportunity to publish widely in laser and molecular spectroscopy, a field that deals with the energy levels of atoms and molecules. He received many accolades for his research in 1975, including the Omega Psi Phi Scholar of the Year Award and a fellowship from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Upon completing his studies at MIT in 1976, McNair accepted a staff physicist position at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. He worked full time on various laser innovation projects. He also worked as a karate instructor and was awarded a Karate Gold Medal by the Amateur Athletic Union after winning five black belt karate championships. McNair was a talented jazz saxophonist as well.

Life’s Work

In 1978, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected McNair as a candidate for a one-year term of astronaut training. After completing his term, McNair passed his exams in 1979, qualifying him to be a mission specialist on space shuttle flight crews. His first flight, the STS 41-B ( Challenger), launched from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 3, 1984. McNair was responsible for testing the shuttle’s remote manipulator arm. His successful first flight launched two Hughes 376 communication satellites and flight-tested sensors and computer programs. On February 11, 1984, Challenger landed at Kennedy Space Center. McNair was the second African American to fly into space, logging a total of 191 hours.

After the successful Challenger test run in 1984, McNair was appointed a mission specialist for STS 51-L, known as Orbit Challenger. He was assigned to control the remote manipulator arm that would release the Spartan-Halley satellite to photograph Halley’s Comet. Challenger took off from Kennedy Space Center on January 28, 1986, carrying McNair and six fellow astronauts. Seventy-three seconds after liftoff, Challenger exploded and the crew perished instantly, just fifty-two feet from the Kennedy Space Center.

McNair was survived by his wife, Cheryl; his children, Reginald Erwin and Joy Cheray; and his brother, Carl S. McNair. In 1986, McNair was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. That same year, Congress passed a bill in McNair’s honor to implement a program that would help minorities, first-generation college students, low-income people, and other groups underrepresented in higher education to pursue doctoral degrees in science, mathematics, and education. This organization became the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. In 2005, McNair’s brother published a book titled In the Spirit of Ronald E. McNair, Astronaut: An American Hero.

McNair belonged to several professional organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Optical Society, the American Physical Society (APS), the APS Committee on Minorities in Physics, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Board of Trustees, and the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee. McNair also was a visiting lecturer in the Physics Department at Texas Southern University.

McNair’s other accolades and honors include the Los Angeles Public School System’s Service Commendation (1979), the National Society of Black Professional Engineers’ Distinguished National Scientist Award (1979), and the Friend of Freedom Award (1981). McNair also received an honorary doctorate in law from his alma mater, North Carolina A&T, in 1978, and honorary doctorates in science from Morris College (1980) and the University of South Carolina (1984).

Significance

McNair enjoyed being an astronaut and frequently spoke to young people about the importance of education. He stressed the need to extend educational opportunities to low-income and minority youths. By 2010, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program had produced nearly two hundred support programs for students on college campuses in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Bibliography

Gallardo, Gabriel E. “Fostering a New Generation of Researchers and Graduate Scholars: The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program.” The Black Collegian 39, no. 2 (Spring, 2009): 64-71. Provides a good assessment of the program’s contribution to funding minority, first-generation, and low-income college students.

Gubert, Betty Kaplan, Miriam Sawyer, and Caroline M. Fannin. “Ronald E. McNair.” In Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science. Westport, Conn.: Oryx Press, 2002. Lengthy biography that details McNair’s career achievements.

Heimann, C. F. Larry. “Understanding the Challenger Disaster: Organizational Structure and the Design of Reliable Systems.” American Political Science Review 87, no. 2 (June, 1993): 421-435. A scholarly article analyzing the Challenger explosion that killed McNair and six fellow astronauts.

McNair, Carl S., and H. Michael Brewer. In the Spirit of Ronald E. McNair, Astronaut: An American Hero. Atlanta, Ga.: Publishing Associates, 2005. McNair’s brother cowrote this biography, which is aimed at high school students.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Biographical Data: Ronald E. McNair.” http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/mcnair.html. This biography on NASA’s Web site provides details about McNair’s research at the space agency, his physics career, and his many honors and accolades.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Challenger STS 51-L Accident.” http://history.nasa.gov/sts51l.html. The NASA History Division Web site offers a wealth of content, including the mission profile, crew information, a detailed sequence of events, and official reports on the accident.