By Bob Granath
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida
NASA leaders and the Astronauts Memorial Foundation (AMF) recently paused to honor U.S. Air Force Maj. Robert Lawrence, the first African-American astronaut. He lost his life in a training accident 50 years ago.
The ceremony took place in the Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The observance was hosted by the AMF, which pays tribute to those who died advancing the cause of space exploration.
“Maj. Lawrence truly was a hero,” said, Kennedy’s Director Bob Cabana, who also was a space shuttle astronaut. “He took that first step setting the stage for what was to come.”
The memorial tribute included remarks by former NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, the first African-American to serve in the agency’s top position.
“His leadership was recognized early,” said Bolden who also was a NASA astronaut. “In his days in the Air Force ROTC Program at Bradley University he was selected as a cadet commander.”
Lawrence’s sister, Barbara Lawrence, Ph.D., spoke of the closeness of her family and the values that were instilled in them.
“Your word is your bond and you do what you say you are going to do,” she said.
Also participating in the ceremony were Eileen Collins, chair of the AMF board of directors and a former NASA astronaut, Bob Crippen, former Kennedy center director and NASA astronaut, and physicist Herman White, Ph.D. Also speaking was James Abrahamson, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general who also was a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) astronaut. He later was associate administrator of NASA and served as director of the Strategic Defense Initiative. A presentation to the AMF was made from Lawrence’s fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, by the organization’s grand basileus, Antonio “Tony” Knox.
Lawrence was selected as a U.S. Air Force astronaut on June 30, 1967, and was among those designated to fly aboard the MOL. The military program, which was canceled in 1969, involved a small, single-use space station in which crews would launch and land in an advanced Gemini spacecraft.
A Chicago native, Lawrence graduated from high school in 1952 when he was only 16. By the age of 20 he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. A year later he became a pilot in the U.S. Air Force after completing flight training at Malden Air Force Base, Missouri. Lawrence went on to earn a doctorate in physical chemistry from Ohio State University In 1965.
As a test pilot, Lawrence often flew the F-104 Starfighter to investigate the gliding flight of various unpowered spacecraft returning to Earth from orbit. The research contributed to the experimental operations of the X-15 and the development of the space shuttle.
Six months after his selection as an astronaut for the MOL Program, Lawrence was killed in an F-104 crash during a training accident on Dec 8, 1967, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He was flying backseat on the mission as the instructor pilot for a flight test trainee learning the steep-descent glide technique.
“He was involved in development of the maneuver that would become a critical part of space shuttle landing techniques called ‘flare,’” Bolden said.
When the MOL was canceled in 1969, seven of the 16 Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps astronauts selected for the program who were under the age of 35 transferred to NASA. All flew space shuttle missions.
Had he lived, Lawrence “would have been one of the MOL astronauts who came to NASA,” Cabana said.
Lawrence’s name was added to the AMF’s Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy visitor complex during a ceremony on Dec. 8, 1997.
The Space Mirror Memorial was dedicated in 1991 to honor the lives of those who died while serving in America’s space programs. At the time of Lawrence’s death, the Air Force policy required a flight in space before the award of the astronaut rating. However, on Jan. 2, 1997, the Astronaut Memorial Foundation made a formal request for the Air Force to reconsider Lawrence’s case. In light of the importance of his selection and the unfortunate circumstances of his death, the Air Force retroactively designated Lawrence an astronaut.
The AMF is a private, not-for-profit organization that honors and memorializes astronauts who sacrificed their lives for the nation and the space program. AMF built and maintains the Space Mirror Memorial and the Center for Space Education at the Kennedy visitor complex.
