The US didn't send the first Black astronaut into space — the Soviet Union did with the launch of Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, an Afro-Cuban man who cleared the way for others to follow

· NASA did not launch the first Black person into space — the Soviet Union beat the US space agency by three years.
· Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, a Cuban of African descent, launched to space with a Soviet cosmonaut crewmate on September 18, 1980.
· NASA missed an opportunity to make Captain Ed Dwight the first Black astronaut...