The Space Race (2023) Movie Script

(radar beeping)
NARRATOR: Here are the amazing
adventures of a group of
space pioneers marooned
on an uncharted planet.
Adventure as
challenging as tomorrow.
MAN: Good landing, Flash.
We're right near
the tunnel entrance.
MAN: We're headed for
the planet Saturn.
FLIGHT CONTROLLER: Seven, six,
five, four, three, two, fire.
DISNEY: In our modern world,
everywhere we look we see
the influence science
has on our daily lives.
Many of the things that
seem impossible now
will become realities tomorrow.

CHARLIE: When you look at the
history of space exploration
within the United States,
there were no Black astronauts.
Astronauts were white
male test pilots
"who were all 5'10" on average.
They called it the right stuff.
FLIGHT CONTROLLER:
Three, two, one.
LELAND: In America,
space exploration was
never something for Black folks.
But the people of the African
diaspora have always been
scientifically and spiritually
connected to the cosmos.
This connection is something
that's been around for
a long time, but we've
been robbed of our history.
In its symbolism, space allows
you to see what's possible.
SUN-RA: They say that
history repeats itself,
but history is only his story.
I'm not a part of history.
I'm more a part of a mystery.
(theme music plays)

EMCEE: Well, good afternoon.
It's my pleasure to welcome you
to the Kennedy Space Center,
and it gives me great
honor and pleasure to
introduce our administrator,
Charlie Bolden.
(applause)
CHARLIE: Thank
you all very much.
Um, you know,
it is here that so many
giant leaps have been made,
but what's really important
is that it is here
that many of our future dreams
will be made to come true.
My name is Charles
Bolden. I go by Charlie.
I spent 34 years on active
duty in the Marine Corps,
flew four times on the shuttle.
I was in the pilot for the
Hubble Space Telescope mission.
MAN (over radio): Discovery,
go for Hubble release.
CHARLIE: And I was the NASA
administrator during the
Obama Administration,
the only Black to ever be
the NASA administrator.
Very few people today
even have a clue about.
Black people's contribution
to human space flight,
because they weren't
written in history books.
In Africa, the griot is
the master in a village
that carries the
history of the people.
And unless you're very
fortunate to have a parent or
a mentor or somebody else
who teaches you about it,
you might miss it.

ED: If you're really an
observer of Black people's
accomplishments in America,
we've only made progress
in certain areas.
And it seems like in the
larger scheme of things,
there are areas
that are inviolate.
And this space thing falls
right into that category.
I get questions about, you
know, what really happened,
and my answer to that question
is I don't think America or
anybody knows how complex
the situation was.
NARRATOR: In 1961, Captain
Dwight received a letter from.
President John F. Kennedy
offering him the opportunity
to become the first
Black astronaut.
ED: Well, it wasn't Black then.
It was Negro astronaut.
Kennedy. Kennedy. Kennedy
Kennedy for me
ED: When this whole
thing went down,
Kennedy was trying to
get elected president.
And he knew that he
needed the Black vote.
Kennedy
ED: And so supposedly, a group
of Black community leaders
set up this meeting
with Senator Kennedy,
and all these guys had their
agenda about what they wanted.
The story goes, there were
people like Roy Wilkins and.
A. Philip Randolph, and
Whitney Young went on last.
He was affiliated with the
Urban League and he said,
"Senator, we can't get
our Black kids into the
engineering and science schools.
But we've got military
academies, and we can
fill these military
academies up with Black kids.
"I'll find the Black kids."
Kennedy is, "Huh,
this is interesting.
What do you want from me?"
And Whitney's answer was,
"Make me a Black astronaut,
and give him to me."
(cheering)
REPORTER: Here inside the Armory
the once very junior senator
for Massachusetts, now at the
age of 43, the president-elect
of the United States and
his wife, Jacqueline.
ED: Kennedy won the presidency.
But as far as this
Black astronaut thing,
that was the last thing
that was on his mind.
(phone ringing)
And Whitney was calling him,
"What about my astronaut?
What about our deal?"
General LeMay was
Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The President called
him and asked him,
"How long would it take you
to make me a Black astronaut?"
And the response was five years.
The President said,
"That's not good enough.
I want some information
on my desk by Friday."
And that's how fast this
whole thing evolved.
Back in those days,
there weren't too many.
Black pilots in the world.
Many of them were
Tuskegee Airmen left over
from World War II.
And so now, it was easy
for them to come up with
a set of credentials that
eliminated everybody.
You had to have 1500
hours of jet time.
You had to have a degree in
engineering or natural science.
Your last three effectiveness
reports had to be rated
outstanding, and
you had to be young,
which eliminated the
entire Tuskegee Airmen.
From their point of view,
they came up with criteria
that no Black person in the
universe could ever meet.
So they were trying
to figure out
who the hell is Captain Dwight?
From the time I was two,
mom would take us to the
airport every day.
It just blew my mind,
the whole idea of flying,
and I went straight into
the military out of college.
I was 27 years old, and I had
a pretty good career going.
At that point in time,
I was the only Black
officer on the base,
and so I'm living in
this white universe.
But I was happy doing
what I was doing,
and I had no reason to
be racially conscious.
I had no intention of
being an astronaut.
That was the last thing
on my bucket list.
But once I was
given the challenge,
then everything changes.
And so I polled all of
my superior officers.
Until a person, they told me,
"They would make hamburger
out of you, Dwight."
But then I called my mom, and
she introduces this race factor,
"You're uplifting the
race if you did this."
And so I went back
to Colonel McDonald.
Colonel McDonald said,
"The hell with your
race. You save yourself,"
and I said something
absolutely stupid to him.
I said, "You know,
if I do this",
I'll be on the cover
of Ebony Magazine."
(laughing)
And this guy says, "What
the hell is Ebony Magazine?"
(laughing)
GUY: Interesting enough,
people asked me if I wanted
to be an astronaut
when I was a kid.
MING THE MERCILESS:
Flash Gordon.
FLASH GORDON: You didn't think
you'd get away with this.
Did you, Ming?
GUY: And I tell them no,
because astronauts were
science fiction things
and aliens and all
that sort of stuff.
And so I never really had
a strong feeling for it.
Math and science were the
driving force in my life,
and I was curious of a
lot of different things.
But the thing that I loved most,
I was crazy about airplanes.
I didn't look at them from
a pilot point of view.
I looked at them from
a how are they built?
Is it a nice-looking airplane?
Will it fly fast?
So I looked at it from an
engineering point of view.
And interesting enough,
my father was an engineer,
and I never really
recognized that that was
a strange occupation
for a Black man.
I didn't think that was unusual.
And so I got accepted
to Penn State in the
aeronautical
engineering department.
I showed up on a
campus, and they're not,
they're just not there.
And I realized I was the
only Black student in
aerospace engineering.
CHARLIE: Growing up, my
mom and dad, you know,
they always talked
about possibility.
But growing up in
the Jim Crow South,
you just, you knew what
you could and couldn't do,
and you didn't press the system.
You were taught you don't
have the right to do that.
You don't have the right
to drink from that fountain
because that says white, so
don't even think about it.
And it was the same
thing with NASA.
I loved the space program,
I was enamored with it,
but nobody doing that
stuff looked like me.
Ed was in consideration
for the NASA program,
which is America's
civil space program,
and there is no organization
that is more effective in
promoting our
greatness than NASA.
But having a Black man as
the face and voice of America
in space, that's different.
That's real different.
ED: Only two years before this
whole Black astronaut thing
were the first seven
astronauts named.
OFFICIAL: It's my
pleasure to introduce
these, ladies and gentlemen,
are the nation's
Mercury astronauts.
(applause)
ED: They spent millions of
dollars making the first seven
astronaut heroes with
the implication that
they were superheroes.
And there was no way
in God's green earth
they would allow me to
be equal to these guys.
Because if a Black guy could
qualify to be among these guys,
then the first seven guys
were not heroes anymore.
That meant anybody could do it.
FRED: With Ed, there was a
lot of politics involved.
And in my career, I learned
never get yourself
associated with a political.
Never.
I mean, as long as that
political person is in power,
then you'll progress.
But at the same time,
you get a lot of enemies
when you do it that way
because they think you're
in a special group.
The rest of them think
you're in a special group.
ED: From the time I got down to
Edwards for test pilot school,
I was set up to fail.
GUY: When you think of test
pilot, do you think edge of
the envelope and all
of that sort of stuff,
like Chuck Yeager, you know,
breaking the sound barrier?
NARRATOR: On October 14th, 1947,
Air Force Captain
Charles E. Yeager
made the world's first
supersonic flight.
(boom)
And he does it.
The first human to
crack the sound barrier.
ED: Chuck Yeager was the head
of the test pilot school.
He was one of my idols.
CHUCK: We're turning out an
entirely different breed of
pilot here at the school.
These guys will be working on
programs all the way from the
surface of the earth to space.
ED: And he called all
the instructors in and
the students before I got
there and tells the people,
"Washington is trying to cram
a nigger down our throats,
and we can't let him graduate."
There was a lot of denial
that this ever happened,
but the story was told to
me by a person that was
in the room so I have
no reason to doubt it.
The other students were
instructed not to speak to me,
not to drink with me,
not to socialize with me.
It's like walking
into a deep freeze.
But this is a lot more complex
than just being racist.
The President should've had
him on board in the beginning
with this Black astronaut idea,
but he was upset
because, you see,
nobody called him.
They called everybody
in this whole aerospace,
test pilot thing, and
they did not call Yeager.
He actually told me this
because he was constantly
calling me into his office
and asking me to quit.
He would pull out a
piece of paper and says,
"There's 150 white boys here
that are more
qualified than you.
You don't belong here."
The isolation and all the lack
of support that I was getting,
this gave me the... the balls
to stand up Yeager, and
we'd go head to head.
I mean, I told him to kiss
my ass, to go to hell,
I don't believe
you, you're a liar.
Any one of those meetings
that I had with Yeager,
I could've been court-martialed.
But I did that, and I
was never intimidated.
Never intimidated.
So I told him, "I'm
not going anywhere."
(engine roaring)
After I graduated from
test pilot school,
Kennedy announced me as
the first Negro astronaut.
That was the headline.
And so all of a sudden,
my schedule was full with
all of these extraneous
things that I did not expect.
Whitney Young was, got a
laser focus on using me
as much as he could use me.
And his thinking was,
this is the last frontier,
this whole space thing, and
we could use this politically
to do all kinds of things.
I would be away from training
from Thursday until
Monday afternoon,
and I'd be making speeches
all over the country about
the whole concept of
this Negro astronaut.
I was making contacts.
I was spreading the word.
When I got back to Edwards,
the press wanted to talk to me.
They won't talk to none
of the rest of those guys,
so I was getting backlash
from the other students.
From their point of
view, they're going,
"What in the world's
going on here, man?"
ANCHOR: A 29-year-old
Negro says he is anxious
to go into space.
He's Captain Edward
Dwight of the Air Force,
selected to be an astronaut,
the first of his race
to be so designated.
ED: When I was first announced,
everybody tried to make
a real big hero out of me,
and all they could think
about was that, you know,
I could be the first
guy on the moon.
But they didn't have
any concept whatsoever
what it took to be a test
pilot or an astronaut.
(engine roaring)
Cheating death and
all that kind of,
that didn't occur
to these people.
I was a body in a way.
When I was chosen
for this thing,
I was actually divorced.
And they said, "Where
is she? Go find her."
So I had to play the game.
You know, I had to
bring the wife and
I had to bring the kids.
I had to bring the
whole thing together.
This was all orchestrated
by the White House,
by the Pentagon, and
it was imaginary.
It was a lie.
CHARLIE: Ed Dwight was being
used for propaganda purposes
because they wanted to show
that they were engaged in
civil rights and
equality for all.
ED: I suppose you could
say that this is definitely
a sign of progress for
the Negro in the country.
GUY: PR is a big thing.
NASA is real sensitive to that,
and you have to
be able to do that
without being eaten up by it.
(crashing)
ED: My job was go educate these
people about space traveling.
That was supposed to be
my role in all this stuff,
but I caught hell from
the NAACP and all the.
Black organizations because
I wasn't militant enough.
I was in there talking
about space and they.
"Man, what's wrong
with you, man?"
You got to talk
about the struggle.
Who wants to hear all
about that space stuff and
all of the space part.
Who wants to hear that?
"Man, you got to talk about
how bad they treating us, man."
And if I did that, I
would've been deported,
you know, immediately.
I was a special person
with a built-in audience
that somebody else
created for me,
and I got on the cover
of all these magazines
so I felt that I was better
than these guys, really.
I mean, I'm getting 1500 fan
mail letters a day and I was,
I have people tell me I was
the most incredible
person on earth,
and I had to be the
bravest person in the world
to even think about
going in space.
And you hear all that, you
start believing this stuff.
ANNOUNCER: Okay, I guess y'all
know why you're here today.
ED: When the announcement
came, I mean everybody was
there from all over the
country with cameras.
I mean, there was more
cameras than people.
You know what I mean?
(camera shutters)
I just knew that all the work
that Whitney had done and that
Kennedy had done, that I was
going to be on that list.
(applause)
ANNOUNCER: I'd like to
introduce to you the new group
of 14 astronauts that we've
been in the process of
selecting for about
the last four months.
REPORTER: Was there a Negro
boy in the last 30 or so that
you brought here
for consideration?
DONALD: No, there was not.
Okay, I guess we're
through, Paul.
ED: He finishes the list and
for that split second of time,
I said to myself, "Hmm,
maybe it didn't work."
FRED: When you began looking
at who had been selected from
the program, it was very clear
that there was no attempt
at that time to integrate.
ED: Right after
the announcement,
I'm calling my parents and
people were calling me and
don't worry, you're still good.
And I was bolstered by that
because I knew for a fact that
they were not going to
walk away from this thing.
About a month later, we
were in Seattle, Washington,
going through what they call
a full mission simulator.
(radio chatter)
And all of a sudden
somebody says,
"They just killed
the president."
And everything came to a
screeching halt and I said,
"Dude, that ain't
funny worth a damn."
and he says, "No, this is
real. The president is dead."
CRONKITE: Here is a
bulletin from CBS News
from Dallas, Texas.
The flash, apparently official,
President Kennedy died at
1:00 PM Central Standard Time,
2:00 Eastern Standard
Time. Some 38 minutes ago.

ED: When I found out the
president was killed,
they shot us back to Edwards,
and nobody was saying
anything to anybody
because everybody knew what
everybody was thinking,
"What's going to
happen to Dwight?"
FRED: Within a few years,
that entire support system
that Ed Dwight had disappeared.
REPORTER: Why aren't
you an astronaut?
Are you now in fact completely
out of the astronaut program?
Did you write a 15-page report?
(camera shutters)
CHARLIE: When President
Kennedy was killed,
people who opposed having
Ed Dwight get into the
astronaut program said, "That's
it. Terminate it. Stop."
REPORTER: You feel that
what's happened to you is
a setback for the civil rights
opportunities in this country?
ED: I would rather
not comment on that.
My hope was just getting into
space in any kind of way.
But they were not going
to let that happen,
and they said, number
one, I wasn't tall enough.
I was Catholic.
I wasn't Black enough.
I was not the model
of the negro race.
I felt very, very used and
I made a decision to resign.
Had all of the
things being equal,
I would've made it to the moon.
I had the capability and I was
not given that opportunity.
For a second or
two microseconds,
you wrap that around and then
you throw it in the trashcan.
(laughing)
(engine roaring)
BERNARD: When I think about
Ed Dwight, I sometimes wonder
if things had played
out differently and
he indeed went to space.
Let's think about what a
difference that would've made.
At that moment in
the Black community,
this was a difficult time.
ANNOUNCER (over film): As for
America, Black people have
been here for more
than 400 years.
We have contributed
dearly in all of the gains
this land has made.
And we have suffered
disproportionately in
all of its failures.
BERNARD: Space really allows
us to realize the hope that's
within all of us
as human beings,
and so to see a
Black man in space
during that period of time,
it would've changed things.
REPORTER (over TV):
If all goes well,
some 112 hours and 50
minutes after liftoff,
Neil Armstrong will step
on the lunar surface.
It shows what the richest
nation in history can do
when it puts its mind to it.
CHARLIE: I was a
student naval aviator.
As a matter of fact, I was, I
was in Meridian, Mississippi.
My wife and I had rushed back
from a, from a raucous weekend
in New Orleans to sit before
the black and white television
and in the bachelor
officers quarters
at the Naval Air
Station Meridian,
so we could see human
beings land on the moon.
Leading up to that, there
was a protest to the.
NASA administrator that
he should stop the launch.
No more mean white folk
Over me, over me
RALPH (over film): Ladies
and gentlemen of the press,
on the eve of one of
man's noblest ventures.
I am profoundly moved by our
nation's scientific achievements
in space and by the
heroism of the three men
who are embarking for the moon.
I have not come to Cape
Kennedy merely to experience
the thrill of this
historic launching.
I'm here to demonstrate in a
symbolic way the tragic and
inexcusable gulf between.
America's
technological abilities
and our social injustice.
CHARLIE: They said NASA should
take some of the money that
was going into the space
program, if not all the money
and put it into, into poor
people in social needs.
THOMAS: Ladies and gentlemen,
I'm here because you invited
me to be here and because
I want to be here.
If it were possible for us
tomorrow morning to not push
the button and to solve the
problems to which you are
concerned, believe me, we
would not push the button.
I would make a counter
request, and that is when you
have your prayer vigil tonight
that you'll pray for the
safety of our astronauts.
This would mean a great deal to
all of us in the space program.
CHARLIE: The NASA
administrator told them,
we believe that down the
road this is going to benefit
what you're trying to do.
That was his argument.
They didn't buy it,
but nonetheless,
they launched and
the rest is history.
SPEAKER: Five, four,
three, two, one, zero.
All engines running.
(engine roaring)
RALPH: We pray for these
brave, courageous heroes,
make their way to the
moon home tomorrow.
May they never forget their
suffering brothers and sisters
down here on the earth.
May they think about us
tomorrow and pray for us
as we will be praying for them.

ARMSTRONG (over radio):
It's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
BERNARD: For this little
Black kid to not see any
you know, Black people being
part of the space program
just egged me on.
I said, "Well, they
may not want us there.
I may not see someone who
looks like me, but we're going
to prove them wrong and
I'm not the only one."
H. RAP: We tend to equate
progress with concessions.
We can no longer
make that mistake.
You see, when they gave
us that nigger astronaut,
you said, "We were
making progress."
But I told you, "They were
going to lose him in space."
He didn't get that far.
(applause)
SPEAKER: Black power
means Black dignity.
We don't want any
more than you have and
we're not going to accept
any less than you have.
That's Black power.
CHARLIE: After the early days
of the civil rights movement,
you had Stokely Carmichael
and organizations like the.
Black Panthers that were
incredible in their ability
to build pride in
the Black community.
STOKELY: We don't need
anybody to tell us to
stand up anymore.
Not only are we going to stand
up, we going to right the
wrongs of our people
in this generation.
When you wish upon a star
CHARLIE: And then you had
other people who had their
eyes somewhere
out on the future.
SPEAKER: Growing up as a
poor painfully shy child,
author Octavia Butler found a
refuge in the limitless world
of science fiction.
Life ain't always
what it seems, oh yeah
OCTAVIA: You got to
make your own worlds.
You got to write yourself in.
Whether you were a part of
the greater society or not,
you got to write yourself in.
You're a shining star
No matter who you are
LELAND: As a kid, space was
never something for the.
Black diaspora, but Afrofuturism
was this cultural aesthetic
that gave Black people
the opportunity to
see ourselves in space.
GEORGE: Nobody's seen
a Black in outer space.
That was not even a
concept of nobody's mind,
especially sitting on a
spaceship like it's a Cadillac.
Shining star for you to see
What your life can truly be
Shining star for you to see
LELAND: And so Afrofuturism
provides a vision of the
future with our flavor
added to the mix.
Shining star for you to see
What your life
can truly be
SUN-RA: I am Sun-Ra,
ambassador from the
intergalactic regions of
the council of outer space.
WOMAN: How do we
know you for real?
WOMAN: Shoot, I know I'd
probably take off running if I
see somebody walking down
the street talking about
going to outer space.
SUN-RA: How do
you know I'm real?
ALL: Yes.
SUN-RA: I'm not real.
I'm just like you.
You don't exist in this society.
If you did, your people wouldn't
be seeking equal rights,
so we are both myths because
that's what Black people are.
Myths.
They take frequent
trips to the moon.
I noticed none of you
have been invited.
How do you think
you're going to exist?
The year 2000 is right
around the corner.
MAN (over TV): When Neil
Armstrong stepped onto the moon,
the restless American spirit
began asking the question,
what next?
Well, this morning we
start to get the answer.

REPORTER (over TV): This is
Orbiter 101 as it rolled out of
the hangar in
Palmdale, California.
CHARLIE: A lot of people
talk about the technological
marvel of the space shuttle.
REPORTER (over TV):
A transportation system capable of
delivering 65,000 pounds
of payload into orbit.
CHARLIE: And I said,
true, but that's not its
most important
contribution to humanity.
It was a big vehicle like the
size of a 737 airplane that
could carry a crew of seven,
but it only needed two pilots,
so people who were scientists
and engineers could fly along
as crew members while
the two pilots up front
took care of flying the vehicle.
All of a sudden we were
able to hire astronauts
who didn't look like the
classic NASA astronaut,
so it revolutionized the
makeup of the space program.
FRED: I had been a test pilot
for NASA for about six years,
but every day I came in
and did the same thing.
I felt like I was in a rut,
and then I saw something
that to this day, uh,
it just still,
still overwhelms me.
NICHELLE: Hi, I'm
Nichelle Nichols,
but I still feel
a little bit like.
Lieutenant Uhura on the
Starship Enterprise.
(clapper board)
FRED: There was a young
lady that we all knew and
her name was Lieutenant Uhura.
NICHELLE: Frequency
open, Mr. Spock.
Come in, star base.
Come in Captain Kirk.
FRED: She was Nichelle Nichols
and she was on Star Trek.
NICHELLE: Star Trek projected
a future in space that
included all of us, so I
became very involved with NASA,
with the idea that
especially Black people
had to have an awareness
of those possibilities.
It's still an all white
male astronaut core.
People are somewhat well, the
credibility is rather zero
with NASA in the minority
and female community.
FRED: I remember her saying,
"I don't see me here."
And she went out on a campaign
and crisscrossed the country.
NICHELLE: Suddenly there was
this connection going from
fantasy to fact, and I
was that spokesperson.
FRED: I saw her on TV.
NICHELLE: I'm speaking to the
whole family of humankind,
minorities and women alike.
FRED: I know she
was talking to me.
Others claim she
was talking to them.
No, she was talking to me.
NICHELLE: If you qualify
and would like to be
an astronaut, now is the time.
This is your NASA.
A space agency embarked on
a mission to improve the
quality of life on
planet earth right now.
FRED: The last NASA astronaut
selection was in '69,
so there was a gap.
One program was shutting
down, a new one was beginning.
PRODUCER: Camera. Speed.
Fred Gregory, scene 28.
Guion Bluford. Scene 26.
Ron McNair, scene 27. Take one.
(clapper board)
MAN: The National Aeronautics
and Space Administration
today chose the 35 persons who
will ride the space shuttle
into orbit and
back in the 1980s.
Among them are three Blacks,
one oriental, and six women.
SPEAKER: It's my pleasure
to introduce Guy Bluford.
All eyes on me alright
alright alright
GUY: When I applied, I wasn't
sure that I'd ever make it.
You'd read in the newspaper,
these people have been
selected for the astronaut
program and they all
leap tall buildings
with a single bound.
I went down to Houston and
I saw the competition and
I'm sort of saying, "Hey, I
want to see who these people are
that are better than I am."
ANNOUNCER: I'd like to welcome
Major Frederick Gregory
from the United
States Air Force.
Help him find the funk
FRED: At this time, my goals
in life were not something
specific like to be a pilot
or be a doctor or something.
I wanted to have fun
and make a contribution.
I was one of the first
Blacks in integrated schools
in Washington DC, the only one
in my class at the academy,
so if there were a barrier,
it would have to be
a big one to stop me.
(laughing)
Hey, yeah
Shine the spotlight on him!
Help him find the funk
ANNOUNCER: Chosen as a mission
specialist, Ronald McNair.
RON: Being a scientist, I see
it as something that's part of
man's nature to explore
as far as he can and
as deep as he can
into the unknown.
Becoming an astronaut is
something that I've wanted to
do for a long time, but I
didn't see how it was possible
until a mission specialist
position was created.
At that time, there was
nothing standing in my way
except to pursue it.
ANNOUNCER: To say that we're
pleased with the selection
is an understatement.
They are undoubtedly the best
looking group we've ever had
as astronauts, and that's
the 35 new astronauts.
(applause)
Help him find the funk
Ha da da dee da
hada hada da da
Help him find the funk
Most of all he need the funk
Everybody's got a little
light under the sun

ED: After I left the military,
I was very quiet and
I didn't say anything.
I was just numb.
And this was an interesting
time for me because
I didn't know what
to do with myself
after 13 years in the Air Force,
but I did have a
background in art
since I was a little bitty kid,
and so I wanted to do
something creative.
I had a construction company
at the time, and so I started
picking up all the junk from
my construction sites and
next thing you know, I got
the house all decorated
with my sculptures.
Lieutenant Governor George Brown
purchased one of my
little pieces of art.
He was elected our first Black
lieutenant governor in the
state of Colorado and he said,
"I've been watching
you with your art, and
they want a sculpture of me to
adorn the capitol building."
That started my art career
that I didn't know I was going
to be starting, to be
totally candid with you.
After I completed
the sculpture of him,
he awarded me a big project
for the state of Colorado,
a series that had to do with
the Black migration west,
and I asked him,
"What did they do?"
He got rather irate.
"What are you talking about?
Have you ever heard
of Harriet Tubman?"
And I was 42 years old and
I had never heard
of Harriet Tubman.
I grew up with basically
a white education and
I didn't realize that I had
been told every day of my life,
anything of reality that
we experienced today
was done by white people.
And it didn't come into
my reality what George was
talking about until I read
all, all this Black history
that I had didn't know existed.
That obviously had to change
my whole internal agenda
and I got very angry.
In the beginning, I never
thought about Black history,
but as this thing went along,
I began to realize the
power of, you know,
this storytelling, uh, idea,
and so my motivation
was 100,000% with
educating people.
RON: Times have changed to
the point where Black men
can enter areas that were
heretofore some sort of,
you might say, prohibited.
To some youth, particularly
in our youth who felt that
such goals were not
reachable or unattainable.
INTERVIEWER: Do you feel that
three is an adequate number
at this point in time?
RON: Well, certainly I don't
feel three is adequate.
I think as many as you can
get in, but three is a start.
Let's do it.

CHARLIE: Boy, Guy,
Ron, and Fred.
How are they similar?
They're all three Black.
They're all three male.
I wanna come back
CHARLIE: That is
about the end of it.
'Cause I like it like that
CHARLIE: Fred came from the
helicopter community and then
worked his way into fighters
while he was serving at
Langley as a test pilot.
And so Fred is the
classic NASA astronaut.
Your sweet phalanges
CHARLIE: Guy is not the
typical fighter pilot.
You know, we're accustomed
to fighter pilots who are
braggadocious and, and
boastful and everything.
That's not Guy.
Guy is an engineer
and an engineer first
and he'll tell you.
And so he was selected
as a mission specialist,
not as a, not as a pilot.
What I say
CHARLIE: And then Ron's
the brilliant engineer
with his doctorate
in laser physics.
He's a renaissance man.
GUY: I always admired the
fact that he went to MIT.
I, I would've been blown
out at MIT, you know.
Ah, ugh, whoo!
Let me stop procrastinating
CHARLIE: Fifth degree
black belt in karate,
could have been
a very successful
professional saxophone player.
That was Ron.
GUY: I was very thankful
of the fact that
when we came in in '78,
there were three of us,
but Fred and Ron
as well as myself,
all recognized that
one of us would be
the first Black astronaut.
REPORTER: The 35 candidates
begin two years of unisex,
interracial training at
the Johnson Space Center,
July 1st.
Those who pass will become
astronauts, ready for advanced
instruction as members
of the seven person crews
who will fly the Space
Shuttle in the 1980s.
FRED: There were 15 pilots
and 20 mission specialists of
very brilliant scientists
and engineers and
that's when we all started.
GUY: We had, uh, briefings
on how the shuttle flew.
These were classroom
instructions and
I assumed Fred would be the
first guy to fly in space,
'cause he's a test pilot.
Test pilots were the king and,
you know, mission specialists
were just those
lowly guys who ride
in the back of this vehicle.
FRED: Certainly, um, people say,
"Well, were you competing to
be the first Black astronaut?"
I don't remember competing,
but I'm told that
there was competition.
GUY: Everybody jockeyed
around to figure out,
how can I fly before such
and such and such and such.
It was sort of a, I'm better
than you if I fly before you.
And you were dealing
with people who knew
how to play the game.
(splash)
Each of the astronauts knew
who the decision maker was.
So everybody ran around
kissing the rump of this guy
named George Abbey,
and I did just the opposite.
I avoided the guy.
I figured the less he knew
about me, the better, you know.
I didn't really want to be
the first Black astronaut.
And then the other thing is,
Blufords are all introverts.
I am not a um, party-goer.
I treasure what
few friends I have.
I never joined the frat.
I'm not a frat guy.
I recognize I didn't want
all that hoopla, you know.
FRED: I would go to the gym
five days, six days a week.
(ball bouncing)
Guy was always there.
He was a runner.
I'm not a runner.
And so it was more, you
know, waving and saying, hi.
GUY: I don't bring my work home.
No.
I, I left it at work.
I had two kids that were going
into eighth and ninth grade.
They needed my time.
It's easy for me to
be an average guy.
Sometimes I need to
be reminded that I am
better than I think I am.
REPORTER: The flight of STS-8
is now about 18 hours away.
That's when Challenger
will be thrown into space.
Official liftoff time set
for 2:15 tomorrow morning.
It's the first nighttime
launch for the shuttle,
but not the only first
for this mission.
Colonel Guy Bluford
will make history when
the shuttle lifts off.
He'll become the first Black
American to fly in space.
ED: All through my training,
I was told by friends and
enemies alike, "You're 20
years too soon, buddy."
This is something that
has to be resolved by
the American public.
And sure enough, 20 years
after I went into the program,
Guy Bluford went up.
20 years.
(applause)
GUY: I was surprised
when I got selected,
but being the first
Black astronaut
was just a toss-up
between me and Ron McNair.
But then in the end, the
killer was I was a flyer.
Ron McNair was not a pilot.
MAN (over radio): T minus
11, ten, nine, eight, seven.
GUY: As the clock counts down,
the three main engines of the
shuttle light up and the
thing that strikes my mind is,
"Wow, this thing moves."
(laughing)
MAN (over radio): And the
shuttle has cleared the tower.
(engine roaring)
GUY: It takes an awful long
time for our society to change.
There's all of this inertia
that you have to overcome,
but we eventually
do it over time.
ASTRONAUT (over radio):
Standing by for
shuttle rocket separation.
MAN (over radio): Challenger,
Houston with you on TDRS.
ASTRONAUT (over radio): Houston,
Challenger loud and clear.
How do you read the CDR?
MAN (over radio): Roger.
Loud and clear also.
(radio chatter)
GUY: People ask me did I get
a spiritual uplifting, um,
one with nature, all that
sort, I said, "No, no."
On STS-8, my biggest concern
was do the best job possible.
GUY: You can see we
have a smooth spin up.
It spun all the way
up to 40 rpm and uh
stayed very stable
right at 40 rpm.
GUY: I was less concerned
about the hoopla associated
with a historical perspective.
I'll handle that
when I get down.
But I wanted to make sure I
did a good enough job that
when I got down
people would say,
"Bluford did a good
job and we can fly
African-Americans and we
don't have to sweat it."
MISSION CONTROL: Challenger,
Houston with you.
The president is on the line.
REAGAN (over radio):
Guys, congratulations.
You, I think, are paving
the way for many others and
you're making it plain
that we are in an era of
brotherhood here in our land.
We're all looking forward to
another successful mission and
to your safe landing here
in California on Labor Day.
INTERVIEWER: This
question is for Guy.
Could you reflect a little bit
back on your role and do you
think that your part in
the mission is helping to
pave the way for
other minorities?
GUY: I think the answer to
the second question is yes.
ANNOUNCER: Lieutenant
Colonel Guion S. Bluford.
GUY: From a historical
point of view, I feel as if
I'm opening the door for those
behind me and, uh, you know,
I just anticipate that
this will be more of a
normal operation than
an un-normal operation.

It took me a while to
recognize the importance
of being the first
African American.
And then I learned
about Ed Dwight.
INTERVIEWER: An interesting time
to note that a Black American
might have been into
space a long time earlier.
(applause)
What's your feeling
about Guy Bluford?
ED: That's incredible.
Yeah, he's done a very
outstanding job and
he's to be congratulated.
GUY: People look up to you
because you have done this,
even though you may
have questioned if you
really deserve it or not.
I'd made it because Ed
Dwight did his thing
and for me that was a biggie.

REAGAN: Modern day
heroes, like Guy Bluford,
are emerging and aspiring
new faith in our system and
new hope for the future.
FRED: When I went into
the astronaut program with
Ron and Guy,
I thought that we found this
torch and lit this torch.
But what we found was
that after Ed Dwight,
there were other
Black astronauts and
all of this history was
never, ever recorded.
Oh, this one's top secret.
That's when I learned about
a guy named Bob Lawrence.
JOURNALIST: Major Lawrence,
do yourself feel that this
is a tremendous step
forward in racial relations?
ROBERT: No, I don't
think this is especially
a tremendous step forward.
I think it's just another
one of the things that, uh,
we look forward to in this
country with respect to
the progress in civil rights.
CHARLIE: When we look at
the comparison between
Bob Lawrence and Ed Dwight,
Bob Lawrence was in
a classified program
and that was okay to people
who resisted Ed Dwight.
They could handle somebody
in a classified program
who may never be seen.
FRED: The MOL program was a
very secretive DOD program.
Those who were in the program
were all very successful
in their careers.
And so it was expected
that Bob Lawrence would be
the first Black astronaut.
(engine rumbling)
CHARLIE: For jet training, the
Air Force used the F104 and,
um, on this particular day,
Bob Lawrence was actually
training another pilot.
The student was flying
an approach, executed to
pull up a little bit late,
and Bob Lawrence was able
to call for him to eject.
So the student got
out of the airplane,
but Bob Lawrence was
not able to get out.
(engine rumbling)

BARBARA: After Bob was killed,
I got a letter from some
irate citizen that said that
they were glad that he was dead
because now there would
be no coons on the moon.
You know, mixed in with
the sympathy cards,
every once in a while you'd open
an envelope and here would be,
you know, a letter or a note
saying how happy they were
that the event had taken place.
FRED: He was only
in the program about
five or six months
and, um, it's a shame.
It really is a shame.
(papers rustling)
It's amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
And then I found out
that the Soviet Union
also had a Black astronaut.

ARNADO: Cuba was
the ninth country
that had the chance
to travel to space.
And I became
the cosmonaut number 97.
CHARLIE: Around the
same time that we had.
Guy and Fred and Ron,
there was a Cuban who was
the first person of color
to fly when he flew
with the Russians.
And in the case of civilian
space and space exploration,
the Soviet Union was our enemy,
but the Soviets were
very conscious of the
racial disparity that we have
here in the United States.
And so a program was formed
to show that they were
allowing people of all
creeds, colors, persuasions
to have this opportunity
to go to space.
That was really important,
even if it were just
one person at a time.
Tamayo was the Soviet
version of Ed Dwight.
They both were selected
for propaganda purposes,
but the Soviets
made that history,
not the United States.
(speaking foreign language).
CHARLIE: We were competing
with the Soviet Union on
the international stage where
you wanted to demonstrate
that you were the power.
So we never recognized
the importance of
his accomplishment.
ARNADO: In the United States
everything that had to
do with Cuban success,
they restricted it.
CHARLIE: I didn't know
anything at all about Tamayo.
FRED: I have no idea.
GUY: I didn't know
who Arnado was.
I know where Cuba is, 90
miles south of Florida.
That's about as much
as I know about Cuba.
ARNADO: No media has published
the results on television.
They say that it's a Cuban tale.
FRED: As you begin to look
back and you see a lot of
our history was never known.
And so here I thought I was
initiating all of this stuff
because I'd never read about
it, never heard about it,
and then I realized, no,
I'm just in line, you know.

(cheering, applause)
GUY: Once I became
famous so to speak,
I could have easily taken off.
No.
My job was to break
open the barrier,
but my accomplishment
would not mean much
unless other Black
astronauts fly.
I thought I had the
responsibility to make sure
Ron fly, make sure Fred flies,
make sure Charlie flies.
And I'm a big time, "Hey, I
want to make sure you fly."

GUY: At that point, there
were an awful lot of missions
going on, so we were busier
than a one-armed bandit.
Pack your grip,
takin' you on a trip
CHARLIE: When Ron was getting
ready for his first flight,
a lot of his training happened
at the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida, and he needed
a way to get there.
And I found out that we both
grew up in South Carolina,
so I volunteered to
be Ron's chauffeur.
On the groove line tonight
FRED: When I got my
first assignment,
my job was a pilot.
Ooh, ooh
Get this train
FRED: The mission itself
was a laboratory mission.
That was exciting to
me because I knew that
what they then learned would
be in books or in lectures.
That is the thing that
keeps you excited.
It's the thrill of discovery.
GUY: I did not want to
be a one-time flyer.
Leave your worries behind
GUY: Plus I enjoyed
flying in space.
So I elected to fly my second
flight in October of '85,
and then there was
Charlie Bolden.
Ooh, ooh
Yeah tonight
CHARLIE: I was in the
second group of people
selected to fly
the space shuttle.
And when I think about
my journey into space,
I contend everybody who
gets to see the planet
from that perspective
will be changed forever.
Tonight
Rain, shine, don't mind
We're ridin' on the
groove line tonight
CHARLIE: Once you get to
space, you are literally
trying to fall back to earth
and centrifugal force won't
let you, and so you feel
like you're floating.
So that was the feel,
the sense of feel.
The knockout punch though
was the sense of sight.
This planet is incredibly
breathtaking and
looking through the
cameras that God gave us,
it is unlike anything
that you can see through
even the best cameras.
None of them compare
to the human eye.
GUY: One of the things that
really surprised me was
how small the earth was.
We went around the
earth every 90 minutes.
FRED: Some of the very smart
scientists went to orbit
knowing what they were going
to see, and I found in many
cases they didn't know
what the truth was.
That was exciting to me
because that began to justify
the reason why we were
doing these things,
was to learn and discover.
CHARLIE: I remember the
first time I looked at the
continent of Africa, I cried.
I had studied for a year,
preparing myself to be
able to look down and see
Senegal and Nigeria and
all these other countries,
and I couldn't tell one
country from the other
because there were no lines.
You looked at that and
you recognize the way God
intended the planet to be.
We all knew it was going to be
something, but we had no clue
that it was going to have
the impact that it had.
RON: No words.
I'm sorry there just
aren't any words.
There just aren't any words.
The blacks are blacker,
the blues are bluer,
and the whole experience of
watching sunrises in a
matter of a few seconds
and set just as fast
is mind-boggling.
CHARLIE: Nine days after
I flew my first flight,
Ron and his crew strapped
in for his second mission.
PHOTOGRAPHER: All
right, now ready to go.
Okay, up on the stool
there. Real tall.
BARBARA: Up here?
FRANCIS: We need the
jackets zipped or
you want to leave them?
PHOTOGRAPHER: Why
don't we zip them up?
Casual, big smile.
We caught Ron at a good time.
FRANCIS: Alison,
how about smiling?
RON: I only brought one smile.
I'm going to save that one.
BARBARA: Ron, you
like you're thinking.
FRANCIS: Ron's going to
save it for the real thing.
(applause)
MAN (over radio): This is
Mission Control Houston,
all orbiter systems continue
to function normally and.
Mission Control is ready
for the launch this morning.
FRED: In the space program,
everybody's got
different jobs to do.
My role on the Challenger
mission 51L was as the
lead Cap Com,
capsule communicator.
MAN (over radio):
T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.
We have main engines start.
4, 3, 2, 1, and liftoff.
Liftoff called the 25th
Space Shuttle mission and
it has cleared the tower.
FRED: All of the experts
in Mission Control have
monitors in front and
it's a lot of data,
and I'm looking at a monitor
behind the flight door.
MAN (over radio): We got 65.
MAN (over radio): 65, final.
MAN (over radio): (inaudible)
confirms, thank you.
MAN (over radio): Challenger,
go with throttle up.
(radio chatter)
FRED: And I see this,
this big explosion.
And I wanted to immediately
grab the microphone and say
something like,
"Godspeed, Challenger,"
but I didn't, and I
regret it to this day.
CHARLIE: Um...
You know, life changed
forever for a lot of us.

For me, I had to make a
decision like everybody
in the office, "Was
I going to stay?"
You know, "Is this really
what I want to do?"
And um, it took, it took me,
I tell people it
took me a nanosecond.
I mean, like, really quick.
I thought about it and
instantly I said, you know,
"Ron would be really pissed
if I walked away now, if, um,
if I didn't go to work and
figure out what went wrong
so that it never happens again."
To be quite honest, Ron is the
reason that I'm here today.
Had it not been for meeting
Ron, I probably would've
never even thought about
applying for the space program.
1978, when I started
test pilot school,
was also coincidentally
the year that NASA selected
the first group of space
shuttle astronauts.
One day, three or
four NASA T-38s,
each of them carrying
two astronauts,
pulled up on the flight line,
and out of the backseat
jumped this Black guy.
I knew there were three
Blacks in the program,
but it was not until I
physically met Ron McNair
that I experienced the
power of representation.
I rushed over to meet him and
greet him, just mesmerized.
He and I spent the weekend
just talking about what it was
like in his training and how
exciting it was and all that.
And the last thing
he asked me, he said,
"Hey, are you gonna
apply for the program?"
I told him, "Not on your life."
I said, "Ron, they'd
never pick me."
He looked at me with this
incredulous look on his face,
got a scowl almost, and said,
"That is the dumbest
thing I ever heard."
He said, "How do you
know if you don't ask?"
So I just kind of stood there
startled and watched Ron
get in his airplane and
blast back to Houston.
(engine roaring)
I went home and
I said, you know,
"I think I'm gonna apply
for the space program."
Ron was a mentor to me, much
as my mom and dad had been.
He was also a brother
in a lot of senses.
You don't see too many
people like Ron McNair.
JESSE: What lessons do we
learn from this trauma?
America at its best, two
women, a Jew, a Black,
an Asian, white males,
at our best as a nation.
Progress always comes
after sacrifice.
GUY: In the astronaut office,
all the people that had been
assigned to crews, all
of that was canceled.
The whole agency came to a stop.
We didn't know what to do.
(helicopter whirring)
(engine rumbling)
In my case, I had good
friends on the shuttle.
That's why I stayed.
CHARLIE: Within weeks, I
got assigned to take over
the Safety Division at
the Johnson Space Center.

It gave me something
to do to feel that
I was contributing
to the recovery.

GUY: Charlie was a brand
new guy in the office,
so to speak.
I was on the action
investigation team.
We looked at everything.
And I thought, of all
the things I could do
to honor those people is to
make sure that we find out
what happens and we fly safely.
FLIGHT CONTROLLER (over radio):
And lift-off, lift-off.
America's return to space as
Discovery clears the tower.
CHARLIE: And we did
return to flight.
And that was really
important that we showed that
we could get knocked down,
we could figure things out,
and we could get back up.
(engine roaring)
In addition to that,
representation becomes
critically important to help
us keep moving down that path.

MAE: We are now at the point
where we can bring together
lots of different types of
people and make sure that
we're using all the
talents that we have.
BERNARD: As a Black astronaut,
we are symbols of what we can
accomplish as a people,
despite what others
may think of us.
(applause)
CHARLIE: I strongly believe
that firsts are not important,
if there are no seconds and
thirds and fourths, and that
only comes when you have a
diverse workforce that is
representative of the
nation as a whole.

I want the history books
to represent everyone.
I don't want it to
represent just one side
the way it does today.
LELAND: When you fly
in space, you feel this
profound connection to the
legacy of those that have
been there before you and
actually helped you get there.
But this sense of legacy
was never more apparent
than in 2020 when Victor
Glover was in space.
VICTOR: While I was in
space, I thought about legacy
quite often,
because it is a very
small group of people
that can truly
understand what it's like
to be a Black astronaut.
WOMAN (over film): Astronaut
Victor Glover has spent
the past month and a half on
the International Space Station
on a long-term mission.
VICTOR: Growing up in
America as a person of color,
there's this double
consciousness pulling
in different directions.
That tension, um, doesn't
get any easier, you know,
when you get to be an astronaut.
BERNARD: As Black people in
this country, we have always
had to navigate
these two worlds,
one foot in the Black community
and the other in
the white community.
And it is not a choice.
It's something that
we have to do if
we're going to be successful.
CROWD: I can't breathe! I
can't breathe! I can't breathe!
MAN: The 12th day
of demonstrations in
dozens of cities, one of
the biggest nationwide
days of protest since the
killing of George Floyd
in police custody.
VICTOR: The Derek Chauvin
trial over the killing of
George Floyd happened
while I was in space.
I took a painting of
George Floyd with me.
It was right next to me for
six months, for 167 days.
It is difficult when,
you know, you want to be
a part of the movement, but
I also am a military officer
and a NASA astronaut, and that
comes with a responsibility.
Trying to rectify the
bittersweet nature of this
country that can send me to
space as its representative,
but also has allowed these
things to happen to Black men
and women, more so than
in any other people,
it was an overwhelming
and emotional time for me.
(crickets chirping)
LELAND: There's Victor in space.
When I think back on
this really tough time
in our country, I think
about what I was feeling
down here on Earth
and I felt numb.
I could only imagine what
my brother, Victor Glover,
was feeling up there.
LELAND (over phone):
Hey, everyone, how you doing?
Um, it's been a
tough, uh, few days.
I, I keep talking about that
juxtaposition of doing this
most incredible, audacious,
heroic thing and we get
people up to space and,
uh, really hard stuff.
Rocket science is pretty hard,
but civil rights in our country,
it ain't rocket science.

CHARLIE: For me,
this is like deja vu.
It's frustrating and angering,
and you look back and you say,
"I cannot believe that all
the things that we worked for,
we're going backwards."
LELAND: I was watching the
news, thinking about that
could have been me.
That's the gravity of
this situation, right?
It could have been any of us.

VICTOR: There were a lot
of emotions and things that
I tried to do to unpack that.
And for me, it helps
to talk to other folks
who have had to deal
with it, as well.
WOMAN (over radio):
Station, this is Houston.
Are you ready for the event?
VICTOR: Houston,
this is Station.
I am ready for the event.
LELAND: In the midst of all
of this, Victor reached out
to the Black astronauts
to have a call.
I was blown away to
see all of these names
pop up on the screen,
Mae Jemison, Charlie Bolden,
Guy Bluford.
VICTOR: They were all saying,
"What can we do for you?
How can we help you?
How can we support you?"
And that just, they were
giving me exactly what
I needed by just being
there in fellowship.
LELAND: That was a really
transformational call for me.
Until the Victor thing happened,
I wasn't talking to
Fred or Guy, or the,
I mean, if I bumped into them,
we would maybe say, "Hi,"
or whatever, but it
wasn't like we were having
some big legacy discussion and,
"Hey, we got your
back. You can do this."
It wasn't like that.
But when Victor went
to space, it changed.
CHARLIE: We all recognized how
difficult it is to get where
we have gotten and want to
make sure that you've got
all the support that you can.
VICTOR: We have a little
nickname for that group.
We call them the Afronauts.
And so, when I was able to,
to have the video conference
with the Afronauts, the main
thing that I walked away
from that experience with,
is how important it is
to have that group and
to be actively connected.

BERNARD: Many years ago,
Ed Dwight called me up and
told me that he had been
commissioned to do a memorial
for African-Americans
in Texas, and, uh,
he described the concept from,
you know, slave to space.
ED: On the Texas Memorial,
there's only one message that
I'm about, and it has to do
with the valid place that
African-Americans should have in
this whole American experience,
because every one of my
memorials has a storyline
to let people know that
we are people of action
and when something
has needed to be done,
whether it's for the
larger community,
for our own community,
we've been there.
BERNARD: Ed told me how the
first Blacks arrived in Texas,
also as explorers of
this new territory,
how it led to
eventually the future.
It really represented not
only the development of
this country, but also
where we're headed.
CHARLIE: Slavery is a
critically important part of
the idea of this nation.
It was something that we had
to figure out how to overcome
if we were really going to
be the kind of nation that
we think we want to be.
CHAIRMAN: Good morning.
I will start with
Senator Graham.
GRAHAM: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The President has nominated
someone extraordinarily
talented and qualified for
the new NASA administrator.
We inspire the next generation
of young Americans to think
big and there is no better
example of what you can do
in America than what Major
General Bolden has achieved.
So, with that, I heartily
recommend his nomination.
ED: Charlie had me at his
Senate hearings, so all of a
sudden all kind of wonderful
things started happening.
CHARLIE: I also would like
to take this opportunity to
acknowledge the very special
person, Mr. Ed Dwight,
who while not actually
becoming an astronaut,
he was a trailblazer in
the attempt to break the
color barrier in America's
astronaut program.
(applause)
ED: Once Charlie
Bolden took the helm,
NASA finally gave me a tag.
They called me a pioneer,
and so that's the name
I'm assigned, a space pioneer.

CHARLIE: And I'm an American
citizen who really believes
in the idea that
is this country.

CHARLIE: And ideas are
dependent upon people to,
you know, to execute them
or to carry them out.
Black history is
American history.
We forget it at our peril.

ED (over computer):
Uh, Victor, can you hear me?
VICTOR: I can. How you doing?
ED (over computer): I'm trying
to hang in there, buddy.
ED: So, Victor, where are
you? Are you in Houston?
VICTOR (over computer):
I'm in Houston. Yes.
I'm in our Public
Affairs Building.
ED (over computer): Oh, gotcha.
VICTOR: But I'm happy
to do this today.
This is like, this
is an honor, yeah.
ED (over computer): Yeah.
VICTOR: All right,
Mr. Dwight, are you ready?
ED: I am ready.
MAN (over radio):
Station, this is Houston.
Are you ready for the event?
JESSICA: Station is
ready for the event.
VICTOR: Station, this is Ike.
Watty, can you hear me?
JESSICA: I've got you
loud and clear, Ike.
How me?
VICTOR: Awesome. I have
you loud and clear.
It's great to talk to you.
And so, Jessica Watkins, I
would love to introduce to you
my good friend and
mentor, Ed Dwight.
Ed, please say, hi, to,
to Jessica or as
we call her, Watty.
ED: Oh, well, hello, Jessica.
This is so exciting to me to
see because back in the day,
uh, they, they were saying
that Blacks are too ignorant
to be flying in space to, uh,
to hold these
important positions.
And I'm smitten, uh,
by, uh, by the fact that
you're up there doing all
these wonderful things.
JESSICA: It is an
honor to meet you.
We are just so grateful
for the path that you laid
for us to follow behind,
so thank you so much for
everything you've done.
ED: Oh my God, thanks
for remembering me.
(laughing)

(music plays through credits)
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.