‘The Color of Space’: Look at NASA’s new documentary celebrating Black area explorers for Juneteenth
A new NASA documentary showcasing the achievements of various Black astronauts will premiere Sunday (June 19), for the duration of Juneteenth.
The 50-moment documentary, entitled “The Colour Of Space,” will be obtainable to look at beginning at 12 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). You can catch it in the video previously mentioned, or on NASA Tv, the NASA app, NASA social media channels, and the agency’s web site (opens in new tab).
A free, in-human being screening will also take put at Howard College in Washington on Saturday at 7 p.m. community time particulars on registration and things to do are accessible at this site (opens in new tab).
“Anchoring the documentary is a strong and assumed-provoking dialogue amongst seven existing and former Black astronauts, each and every of whom were being chosen to turn out to be element of NASA’s astronaut corps and prepare for missions to area,” agency officials wrote in a Thursday (June 16) announcement (opens in new tab) about the documentary.
Associated: Charles Bolden, NASA’s 1st Black administrator, speaks out on systemic racism
Juneteenth is a federal vacation commemorating the sensible stop of slavery in the United States. It falls on the anniversary of June 19, 1865, commemorating emancipation for 250,000 enslaved individuals in Texas who ended up freed immediately after a Union military took in excess of the previously Confederate-held condition, in accordance to the Smithsonian Institution. (opens in new tab)
This celebration transpired two a long time following the Thirteenth Amendment of 1863 abolished most types of slavery in the United States Confederate states dismissed the modification during the Civil War, which was ongoing in the course of this era.
The optimistic instant of Juneteenth, having said that, was followed by numerous complicated many years in the Black group. Some of the many illustrations incorporated institutions shutting down access to kinds of wealth these as dwelling possession and bank accounts, the Jim Crow period of so-referred to as “independent but equivalent” facilities top to lengthy-time period underfunding in Black communities, violence and threats towards Black people, and other forms of systemic racism persisting into the existing.
The documentary includes numerous Black figures in just NASA commemorating the achievements of Black individuals in room exploration. It also premieres all through a historical minute for the Black community, as Jessica Watkins is conducting the 1st very long-term keep by a feminine Black astronaut on the Worldwide Room Station.
The 7-astronaut discussion highlighted in the documentary contains current NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson, Victor Glover and Jeanette Epps, as well as retired astronauts Bernard Harris, Robert Curbeam, Bobby Satcher and Leland Melvin.
Melvin has spoken out ahead of about the racism he confronted as a younger soccer player and how, if matters experienced gone in different ways, he may possibly have finished up in jail instead of at NASA.
These astronauts “spoke about their journeys and their motivations” through a March 25 party at Area Center Houston, NASA said. The panel was moderated by NASA Johnson House Heart director Vanessa Wyche, the first Black lady to direct a NASA center.
Other Black astronauts are showcased as nicely, the agency reported. “The documentary also features exceptional archival footage and interviews with Guion ‘Guy’ Bluford, the initial Black man in room Charlie Bolden, retired astronaut and first Black NASA administrator former astronauts Alvin Drew and Joan Higginbotham and Ed Dwight, America’s initial African-American astronaut prospect,” NASA reported.
(Bluford was the U.S.’s very first Black astronaut in room but did not fly right up until 1983, even though the space program began flying people today in 1961.)
In a 2020 Area.com job interview, Bolden discussed the systemic racism he confronted through his occupation, and amid lots of other steps, named for much more representation in the astronaut workplace by both “women and minorities.”
The contributions of Black Americans to the place software lengthen back many years. The “Concealed Figures”, who have been Black engineers and mathematicians at NASA in the 1950s and 1960s, produced important contributions to the early decades of the company.
Latest Black milestones in area have bundled NASA astronaut Victor Glover becoming the first Black astronaut to comprehensive a extended-period mission in 2020-21 and Inspiration4 astronaut Sian Proctor turning out to be the very first Black female to pilot a area mission in 2021.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Adhere to us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab).
A new NASA documentary showcasing the achievements of various Black astronauts will premiere Sunday (June 19), for the duration of Juneteenth.
The 50-moment documentary, entitled “The Colour Of Space,” will be obtainable to look at beginning at 12 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). You can catch it in the video previously mentioned, or on NASA Tv, the NASA app, NASA social media channels, and the agency’s web site (opens in new tab).
A free, in-human being screening will also take put at Howard College in Washington on Saturday at 7 p.m. community time particulars on registration and things to do are accessible at this site (opens in new tab).
“Anchoring the documentary is a strong and assumed-provoking dialogue amongst seven existing and former Black astronauts, each and every of whom were being chosen to turn out to be element of NASA’s astronaut corps and prepare for missions to area,” agency officials wrote in a Thursday (June 16) announcement (opens in new tab) about the documentary.
Associated: Charles Bolden, NASA’s 1st Black administrator, speaks out on systemic racism
Juneteenth is a federal vacation commemorating the sensible stop of slavery in the United States. It falls on the anniversary of June 19, 1865, commemorating emancipation for 250,000 enslaved individuals in Texas who ended up freed immediately after a Union military took in excess of the previously Confederate-held condition, in accordance to the Smithsonian Institution. (opens in new tab)
This celebration transpired two a long time following the Thirteenth Amendment of 1863 abolished most types of slavery in the United States Confederate states dismissed the modification during the Civil War, which was ongoing in the course of this era.
The optimistic instant of Juneteenth, having said that, was followed by numerous complicated many years in the Black group. Some of the many illustrations incorporated institutions shutting down access to kinds of wealth these as dwelling possession and bank accounts, the Jim Crow period of so-referred to as “independent but equivalent” facilities top to lengthy-time period underfunding in Black communities, violence and threats towards Black people, and other forms of systemic racism persisting into the existing.
The documentary includes numerous Black figures in just NASA commemorating the achievements of Black individuals in room exploration. It also premieres all through a historical minute for the Black community, as Jessica Watkins is conducting the 1st very long-term keep by a feminine Black astronaut on the Worldwide Room Station.
The 7-astronaut discussion highlighted in the documentary contains current NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson, Victor Glover and Jeanette Epps, as well as retired astronauts Bernard Harris, Robert Curbeam, Bobby Satcher and Leland Melvin.
Melvin has spoken out ahead of about the racism he confronted as a younger soccer player and how, if matters experienced gone in different ways, he may possibly have finished up in jail instead of at NASA.
These astronauts “spoke about their journeys and their motivations” through a March 25 party at Area Center Houston, NASA said. The panel was moderated by NASA Johnson House Heart director Vanessa Wyche, the first Black lady to direct a NASA center.
Other Black astronauts are showcased as nicely, the agency reported. “The documentary also features exceptional archival footage and interviews with Guion ‘Guy’ Bluford, the initial Black man in room Charlie Bolden, retired astronaut and first Black NASA administrator former astronauts Alvin Drew and Joan Higginbotham and Ed Dwight, America’s initial African-American astronaut prospect,” NASA reported.
(Bluford was the U.S.’s very first Black astronaut in room but did not fly right up until 1983, even though the space program began flying people today in 1961.)
In a 2020 Area.com job interview, Bolden discussed the systemic racism he confronted through his occupation, and amid lots of other steps, named for much more representation in the astronaut workplace by both “women and minorities.”
The contributions of Black Americans to the place software lengthen back many years. The “Concealed Figures”, who have been Black engineers and mathematicians at NASA in the 1950s and 1960s, produced important contributions to the early decades of the company.
Latest Black milestones in area have bundled NASA astronaut Victor Glover becoming the first Black astronaut to comprehensive a extended-period mission in 2020-21 and Inspiration4 astronaut Sian Proctor turning out to be the very first Black female to pilot a area mission in 2021.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Adhere to us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab).