Brigadier-General Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, Star Rider

Celebrating Black History Month 2011

Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, of the Cuban Defensa Anti-Aérea Y Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria (Cuban Air Force, commonly known as DAAFAR), was the first African to actually go into space in 1980.

I remember my dad asking me back then why I didn’t aim to be an astronaut instead of wanting to be, in order, a pilot, an astrophysicist, an architect, or an illiterate, wealthy businessman. (Dad didn’t like that last one.)

Arnaldo was a member of the Soviet Intercosmos Warsaw Pact space travel initiative, and he went into space aboard Soyuz 38, returning safely in a night time landing.

Brigadier-General Méndez also achieved a double-first: the first Black and first Hispanic to go into space.

More on him here.