A Forgotten History: Remembering Astronaut Maj. Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.

by Randi Morse

portrait: Defense.gov

Maj. Lawrence was the first African-American astronaut, as well as a major contributor to developing the landing techniques used on the Space Shuttle, yet he remains relatively unknown.

Guion Bluford was the first African-American to go to space, an achievement made in 1983 on the STS-8 mission in which he flew on the Challenger Space Shuttle. However, he was not the first African-American astronaut. That achievement was made by Maj. Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.

Maj. Lawrence was an accomplished United States Air Force pilot. He had over 2500 flight hours, a Bachelor’s in Chemistry, and a Doctorate in Physical Chemistry. In June 1967, he was selected for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory programme, making him the first African-American astronaut.

The St Petersburg Times reported on his selection for the programme in the 1 July 1967 broadsheet. They described him as “an articulate scientist who has the only PhD among the four [pilots].”

In response to a question on whether his appointment marked a historic step in improved race relations, Maj. Lawrence was quoted as saying, “No, I don’t think so. It’s another one of those things that we look forward to in civil rights – normal progression”. He added, “A large number of problems faced by other Negroes I have faced. Perhaps I have been more fortunate than the others in opportunities that came my way.”

One of Lawrence’s colleagues, astronaut Maj. Donald Peterson, had been asked whether he had any issues working with Maj. Lawrence due to his race, to which he was reported as responding, “Not in my case, I can’t speak for all the people of Mississippi, but I personally don’t feel that way.”

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory programme – MOL – was publicly announced to have a purpose of discovering the military usefulness of putting humans into space. Although, in actuality, it was a classified programme, intended to capture images of adversaries during the Cold War.

Barbara Cress Lawrence, Maj. Lawrence’s wife, was quoted saying, “MOL was particularly exciting for Bob because being in the program offered him an opportunity to do the two things he loved most - experimental science and flying.”

Tragically, Maj. Lawrence was killed in a jet crash six months later, in December 1967. He was conducting flight training for another pilot, Maj. Harvey Royer, who was learning the steep-descent glide technique.

The Landing went wrong and the underbelly of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter jet that they were in caught fire. Shayler David, author of Disasters and Accidents in Manned Spaceflight, wrote, “The landing gear collapsed on contact and the canopy shattered. For more than 200 feet the fuselage dragged on the runway before taking to the air again and continuing another 1,800 feet.”

Both Maj. Royer and Maj. Lawrence ejected from the jet. Maj. Royer survived. Maj. Lawrence died instantly. His parachute never opened.

According to NASA History, “Because of his untimely death and the relative secrecy surrounding the MOL programme, Lawrence’s name remained largely unknown for many years.”

Former NASA Administrator and astronaut, Charles Bolden, credited Maj. Lawrence for his contribution in developing the critical space shuttle landing technique called the ‘flare’.

Maj. Peterson was interviewed for the Johnson Space Center Oral History Project by Jennifer Ross-Nazzal in 2002. The following is an excerpt from the oral history transcript, where Peterson recalls his time with Maj. Lawrence.

“We traveled in civilian clothing, and we traveled often with false I.D.'s. I used to travel with a Black fellow who was killed later, a super guy, named Bob [Robert H.] Lawrence.

It was kind of funny, in those days, of course, we were much younger, and we both had crewcuts, and we’d go someplace. Young White and Black guys together in those days weren’t as common as it is today.

We found a couple of interesting things. There were restaurants that wouldn’t serve him, and there were restaurants that wouldn’t serve me. In other words, he was welcome, but I really wasn’t. Nobody ever really threw us out or threatened violence, but they’d just ignore us.

…

Bob Lawrence was supposed to [be] the first Black American astronaut.

Of course, that really created a problem for us. The rest of us were unknown, and we could travel on false I.D., and nobody knew, had any idea who I was. But they worried because the press learned to recognize him.

In other words, they knew him on sight, and it becomes much harder to run a secret program when one of your guys is, like, a high interest to the media, and he really was for a while. He kind of shunned that, obviously to try to shut some of that down. We always worried that we’d show up at some place and somebody would recognize him and make a big to-do about it.”

The MOL programme was cancelled in 1969, but it is fairly certain that had Maj. Lawrence lived, he would have transferred to NASA and flown on the Space Shuttle, as did the rest of his colleagues, including Peterson, who were under the age of 35.

In the February 1984 issue of Ebony, a letter from Lawrence’s wife was published, condemning the magazine for incorrectly stating, in their November 1983 issue, that Maj. Lawrence was the piloting the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter jet, in the crash that he died in.

In her letter she wrote, “I am requesting that Ebony magazine issue a retraction of the misstatements of facts regarding Maj. Lawrence’s death. As Maj. Lawrence was the first Black American to be selected as an astronaut, it is vital that his memory and the special contributions that he made be preserved as a role model for Black youth unmarred by any suggestions of incompetence.”

Last January, to mark the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Northrop Grumman announced that their NG-13 Cygnus spacecraft would be named in honour of Maj. Lawrence. It was christened the S.S. Robert H. Lawrence.

Northrop Grumman stated in a biography they published on Lawrence that, “It is the company’s tradition to name each Cygnus after an individual who has played a pivotal role in human spaceflight.”

The S.S. Robert H. Lawrence launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 15 February carrying supplies to be delivered to the International Space Station.

On the 50th anniversary of his death, NASA and the Astronauts Memorial Foundation held a memorial tribute for Maj. Lawrence in which he was honoured for his contribution in advancing space exploration.

image: Pixabay