Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. holds a resume that reads like a science fiction character sheet: aerospace engineering PhD with a minor in laser physics, 144 combat missions over Vietnam in the F-4C Phantom, more than 5,200 hours in high-performance jets, and 688 hours in space. This deep dive looks past the headline that he was the first African American in space to examine why NASA came to treat him as one of its most versatile specialists. It traces his path from Philadelphia and Penn State through Williams Air Force Base, the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Cam Ranh Bay, T-38 instructor duty, and the Air Force Institute of Technology, where his work on computational fluid dynamics prepared him for the Space Shuttle's Mach 25 unpowered glide home.

The episode covers his selection in astronaut group eight in 1978, the STS-8 flight on Challe ...