Black Shuttle Commander Named
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HOUSTON — NASA announced astronaut crews for future missions Wednesday, including the space agency’s first black shuttle commander and two civilian astronauts.
Air Force Col. Frederick D. Gregory, who piloted Challenger during a 1985 mission, will command Discovery on a Defense Department flight scheduled for liftoff next Aug. 10. He will be the first black to command a shuttle mission.
Civilian scientists Ronald A. Parise and Samuel T. Durrance will be payload specialists aboard Columbia on a mission scheduled to begin March 1, 1990. The flight will feature use of the ASTRO-1 ultraviolet astronomy telescope.
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