Remembering the Groundbreaking Life of the First Black Astronaut

(via Atlas Obscura) Robert Lawrence, Jr. isn’t a household name. He’s one of those people who leave big footprints, though. Not only was he was part of a secretive 1960s Air Force program called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), but Lawrence holds another important and pioneering title; he was the United States’ first black astronaut.