Black Shuttle Commander Named
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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