The Trailblazing Black Astronauts Hidden by History
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On June 12th, the Nat Geo documentary The Space Race will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival before dropping later this year on Disney+.
Directed by Emmy winner Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Lisa Cortés (Little Richard: I Am Everything), the doc explores the contributions Black people made to NASA and the space race, and how the efforts of these “hidden figures” were often overlooked and/or underappreciated.
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“We’re living in an era of renewed interest in space exploration, and as part of it, there is a lot of talk right now about NASA’s return to the Moon in the next few years, and how Black astronauts for the first time will walk on the Moon. But this could have happened 60 years ago. Why didn’t it?” de Mendoza and Cortés tell Rolling Stone. “As filmmakers, we were captivated by this unknown history and the joy of discovering the contributions of the Black astronauts.”
Indeed, a few years ago, Victor Glover became the first Black astronaut to ever live on the International Space Station as part of SpaceX’s Crew 2 mission. And last year, Jessica Watkins made history as the first Black female astronaut to travel to the International Space Station. Both Glover and Watkins have their sights set on the moon next.
“When NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Jessica Watkins fulfill their historic missions to the Moon they’ll be standing on the shoulders of the African American pioneers who overcame the existing social injustice in the U.S., and in that process widened the definition of who, and what “The Right Stuff” means,” explains de Mendoza and Cortés.
Watch an exclusive clip from The Space Race featuring Charles Bolden, a trailblazing Black astronaut and former NASA administrator under President Barack Obama:
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