On this day in Alabama history: Mae Jemison first African American woman in space

Published On: 09.12.19 |

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On this day in Alabama history: Mae Jemison first African American woman in space

Sept 12 feature

Mission Specialist Mae Jemison at aft flight deck ports (001-003) on Space Shuttle mission STS-47. (Image credit: NASA)

Sept. 12, 1992

Mae Carol Jemison, born in 1956 in Decatur, took an early interest in science, particularly astronomy. She graduated from high school at the age of 16 and earned a degree from Stanford University in 1977, followed by a medical degree from Cornell University. She was a general practitioner in Los Angeles, but after Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, Jemison applied to NASA’s astronaut program. After her training was complete, she and six other astronauts on Sept. 12, 1992 flew into space aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, her only mission in space. She and the rest of the crew returned to Earth on Sept. 20, 1992.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

On Sept. 12, 1992, launch day of the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission on space shuttle Endeavour, NASA astronaut Mae Jemison waits as her suit technician, Sharon McDougle, performs an unpressurized and pressurized leak check on her spacesuit at the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center. (Image credit: NASA)

Astronaut Mae C. Jemison served as a science mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Endeavour. She logged 190 hours, 30 minutes, and 23 seconds in space and returned, with the rest of the Endeavour crew, to Earth on September 20, 1992. Born in Decatur, Morgan County, Jemison has been a tireless advocate for science education and space exploration. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

American astronaut Mae Jemison at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, Jan. 1992. (Image credit: NASA)

Astronaut Mae C. Jemison, science mission specialist, is pictured in the Spacelab-J Science Module, wearing a headband and other monitoring gear for physiological evaluation aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Jemison, born in Decatur, Morgan County, was the first African American woman in space. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration)