Bolden, Charles Frank Jr.

Impact on the world

Flew four Space Shuttle missions between 1986 and 1994, piloting STS-61-C and STS-31, the mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, before commanding STS-45 and STS-60, the latter the first joint American-Russian shuttle mission to carry a cosmonaut crew member; in 2009 President Obama appointed him the 12th Administrator of NASA, making him the first African American to lead the agency and only the second former astronaut to hold the position, a role in which he oversaw the space shuttle program's 2011 conclusion, the Curiosity rover's 2012 Mars landing, and development of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System intended to eventually carry astronauts to the Moon and Mars. Bolden has credited Ronald McNair, already profiled in this collection as one of NASA's first three Black astronauts, with personally convincing him to apply to the astronaut corps after Bolden initially dismissed the idea as unrealistic for himself.

Life & background

Born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1946 and raised under Jim Crow segregation, Bolden faced a direct, personal obstacle on his path to the U.S. Naval Academy: South Carolina's congressional delegation, including segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, refused to nominate him for admission specifically because he was Black, with Thurmond reportedly telling him bluntly that he would never receive an appointment from him. Undeterred, the high school senior wrote directly to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and after Johnson became president following Kennedy's assassination, dispatched a retired federal judge to find qualified Black candidates for the service academies nationwide; that judge ultimately secured Bolden a nomination from Illinois Congressman William Dawson, and Bolden graduated from the Naval Academy in 1968 with a degree in electrical science, later reflecting that the episode taught him people are capable of changing even when they initially seem committed to doing wrong. He flew more than 100 combat missions over Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia as a Marine aviator, earned a master's degree in systems management from USC, and graduated from the Navy's Test Pilot School in 1979 before NASA selected him as an astronaut in 1980; when a young Marine officer named Bolden initially doubted he could realistically become an astronaut, fellow Marine and future astronaut Ronald McNair, already profiled in this collection, personally persisted in encouraging him to apply anyway, support Bolden has said he remained grateful for throughout his life even after McNair's death in the 1986 Challenger disaster. After completing his fourth and final shuttle mission in 1994, Bolden returned to active Marine Corps duty, eventually commanding the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and retiring as a Major General in 2003; following his 2009 NASA appointment and 2017 resignation at the conclusion of the Obama administration, he became the first person to have his voice broadcast from the surface of Mars, via a 2012 transmission relayed through the Curiosity rover, and continues consulting internationally on space policy.

Sources

1. Encyclopædia Britannica; National Air and Space Museum; NASA official biography; NPR; Southern Maryland Equity in History Coalition; Smithsonian Men of Change; Obama White House archive