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Kathleen Martin

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Dr. Sian Proctor has made history as the first Black woman to serve as a pilot of a spacecraft when SpaceX’s Inspiration4 Mission launched on Wednesday.
Proctor, who is a geoscientist and professor, will be one of four people in the first-ever all-civilian spaceflight, serving as a Mission Pilot on SpaceX’s Inspiration4. She will be the fourth Black woman to travel into space, but will make history as the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft with the three-day trip circling the earth, the New York Times reports.
Proctor, a Guam native, had her interest in space sparked at an early age due to her father himself being an engineer for NASA. As a child, she was labeled as a “tomboy” because of her love for building planes. It was then when she aspired to be a fighter pilot once she grew up.
After receiving her master’s degree in Geology, and her Ph.D. in Science Education, Proctor embarked on her career as a geoscience professor for South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Arizona where she taught for over 20 years. Proctor also serves as Vice President of Education at Star Harbor Space Academy.
Proctor spoke to The Space Channel — a Local Now partner of theGrio — about how vital astronauts are.
“When we think about astronauts, we don’t really think of them as guinea pigs. They are research subjects and so we submit them to all kinds of medical tests and all those things,” Proctor said.
“You can think of the twin studies like how we’re also investigating technologies and so I brought in this drone study and the whole idea is with that suit I was wearing when you go into these moon and Mars simulation you’re acting like you’re on that planet or that body.”
Years of training and various educational space programs have been key in the preparation of the pilot’s journey set for Wednesday. Her training includes the Mars Desert Research Station, Mars mission at HI-SEAS, and a Moon mission in the LunAres Habitat. Proctor was selected as one of NASA’s astronaut finalists in 2009, KJZZ reports.
Mission Inspiration4 was created by high school dropout turned-billionaire, Jared Isaacmanaccording to the New York Times. He’s the founder of the highly successful payment processing company called Shift4 Payment, and will also be funding this trip.
Continue reading: https://thegrio.com/2021/09/15/sian-proctor-makes-history/?fbclid=IwAR1qkJXayJNRGkh2EPytrxQSqJI0zjjnCh3iYml1I4U3_8JJwjppHxEz6ew
 
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