Dr. Sian Proctor makes history as first African American woman to pilot a spacecraft

Dr. Sian Proctor, the first African American woman to pilot a spacecraft, was launched into Earth orbit on September 15, 2021. Proctor was a member of Inspiration4’s Crew Dragon capsule, part of SpaceX’s all-civilian orbital spaceflight mission.

Originally, Proctor saw the path to space as first becoming a fighter pilot, and then becoming a shuttle commander. Unfortunately, women couldn’t be fighter pilots until the mid-1990s, but no one ever told her she couldn’t. In fact, her father always encouraged her to not let anything get in the way of pursuing her dream. However, when Proctor was a teenager, she needed glasses which meant she wouldn’t be able to be a military aviator due to vision requirements. That ended that career path, so she focused on becoming a scientist.

When NASA started looking for people to live in a new Mars simulation environment to investigate food growth efficiency and plant harvest production, Proctor applied and ended up living in the HI-SEAS habitat in Hawaii for four months and becoming an analog astronaut (simulated space mission). Proctor completed a number of analog space missions and believes sustainable food practices (like those used in spaceflight as well as analog missions) can help reduce food waste here on Earth.  “When we solve for space, we solve for Earth,” she said.

Read more about Dr. Proctor:

Sian Proctor, the first African American woman to pilot a spacecraft: ‘The reality is that solving for space solves for Earth’

Inspiration4 astronaut Sian Proctor reflects on historic SpaceX spaceflight experience

Proctor received a MS degree in Geology and a PhD in Science education from Arizona State University.