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Ronald McNair
Sign in to saveAlso known as Ronald Erwin McNair
American physicist, astronaut (1950-1986)
OverviewAI-generated
Ronald Ervin McNair was an American physicist, astronaut, saxophonist, and karateka. Born in Lake City in 1950, he was educated at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a member of NASA Astronaut Group 8 and worked for NASA. His religious affiliation was with the Baháʼí Faith, and he was part of the African American ethnic group.
McNair died in an accidental death during the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster at Cape Canaveral on January 28, 1986. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. During his career, he received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. He is recognized in the Astronauts collection.
Synthesized by Vinony from 23 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Born
- Ronald Erwin McNair , ( 1950-10-21 ) October 21, 1950, Lake City, South Carolina , U.S.
- Died
- January 28, 1986 (1986-01-28) (aged 35), North Atlantic Ocean
- Cause of death
- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
- Education
- North Carolina A&T State University ( BS ), Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MS , PhD )
- Awards
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- Time in space
- 7d 23h 15m
- Selection
- NASA Group 8 (1978)
- Missions
- STS-41-B , STS-51-L
- Thesis
- Energy Absorption and Vibrational Heating in Molecules Following Intense Laser Excitation (1977)
- Doctoral advisor
- Michael Stephen Feld
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Part of
- NASA Astronaut Group 8
- Given name
- Ervin
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Lake City
- Place of death
- Cape Canaveral
- Occupation
- karateka
- Employer
- NASA
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- Baháʼí Faith
- Instrument
- saxophone
- Sport
- karate
- Image
- Ronald mcnair.jpg
Show 11 more facts
- Commons category
- Ronald McNair
- date of birth
- 1950-10-21
- date of death
- 1986-01-28
- manner of death
- accidental death
- time in space
- 11475
- ethnic group
- African Americans
- place of burial
- Arlington National Cemetery
- name in native language
- Ronald Ervin McNair
- cause of death
- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
- member of the crew of
- STS-51-L
- P450
- STS-51-L
via Wikidata · CC0
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Ronald Erwin McNair (October 21, 1950 – January 28, 1986) was an American NASA astronaut and physicist. He died at the age of 35 during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission specialists in a crew of seven.
Prior to the Challenger disaster, McNair flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-B aboard Challenger from February 3 to 11, 1984, becoming the second African-American in space.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ronald McNair” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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