Joe Philley - G+ Profile Archive

Originally shared by Friends of NASA U.S. Astronaut Candidate Robert H. Lawrence Jr. (1967) Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., a Captain in the United States Air Force, was chosen for the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL), Group III, in 1967, becoming the first African American astronaut candidate. Lawrence died December 8, 1967, in the crash of an F-104 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, with the rank of Major.  Maj. Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., was the first African-American to be chosen as an astronaut by either NASA or the military. He was born Oct. 2, 1935, in Chicago. He graduated from high school at 16 and Bradley University at 20 with a Bachelor's in Chemistry. He was Cadet Commander of Bradley AFROTC and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve. He entered flight training, and after graduation became a T-33 instructor, training USAF & Luftwaffe pilots. He earned a Doctorate in Physical Chemistry from Ohio State. He graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwar...

Well deserved Originally shared by NASA NASA Center Renamed in Honor of Neil A. Armstrong - President Barack Obama has signed HR 667, the congressional resolution that redesignates NASA's Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center, into law. Armstrong was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952. During the Korean War he flew 78 combat missions. In 1955 he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA's predecessor, as a research pilot at Lewis Laboratory in Cleveland. He later transferred to NACA's High Speed Flight Research Station at Edwards AFB, Calif., later named NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. As a research project test pilot over the course of seven years at the center from 1955 through 1962, he was in the forefront of the development of many high-speed aircraft. This photograph shows Neil Armstrong next to the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft after a research flight. He was one of only 12 pilots to fly...