Ronald McNair
OCT 21, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031076
It’s the birthday of Ronald McNair, who was born in 1950 in Lake City, South Carolina. McNair attended North Carolina A&T State University and then went on to earn a PhD in laser physics at MIT in 1974. While he was working as a research physicist at Hughes Research Lab, he applied to -- and was accepted by -- NASA’s astronaut program. McNair’s first space voyage, as a mission specialist, was in 1984 on the Space Shuttle Challenger. His second mission, also on Challenger, took place on 28 January 1986. Just 73 seconds after lift-off, the shuttle disintegrated. McNair and the other six astronauts aboard were killed.
Date in History: 21 October 1950
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
