Black Astronaut Made Space History in 1995. Now He's Getting Inducted into Hall of Fame (Exclusive)
Dr. Bernard Harris Jr. is being inducted into NASA's Astronaut Hall of Fame on Friday, May 31
He made history in 1995, becoming the first Black astronaut to perform a spacewalk
"To be part of the foundation for what we're doing in space now is really fulfilling," he tells PEOPLEDr. Bernard Harris Jr. grew up in Texas as NASA was developing and always had an interest in science – but once he watched man land on the moon, even at 13, he began to have astronaut dreams.
'I knew what I wanted to do,' he tells PEOPLE. 'I wanted to follow the footsteps of these great men, human beings, that had done something for the very first time in human history.'
That's exactly what he did.
Now Harris — who became the first Black person to perform a spacewalk and recently released his second book, Embracing Infinite Possibilities — will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday, May 31.
Before going to college at the University of Houston, Harris, now 68, tells PEOPLE he realized he wanted to become a doctor so he could practice medicine on Earth – and in space.
Following his residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Harris pursued a fellowship in endocrinology because he was 'advised to find the most critical aspect of humans in space that needed to be solved' — and one of those is bone loss. (Astronauts lose 1% of bone per month in space, he says.)
By 1990, Harris applied and spent a year of astronaut basic training. About three weeks later, he was assigned to his first mission: the STS-55 on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1993. During that trip, Harris says he did the first medical examination in space and even the first intravenous line.
'It was only natural for me to say, 'Okay, if we're going to be in space for long periods of time, how do we ensure that humans can survive up there?' " he recalls.
For his second mission, STS-63 on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1995, Harris completed his historic spacewalk. That mission was also notable because Eileen Collins made history as the first female space commander.
'To be part of the foundation for what we're doing in space now is really fulfilling,' he says, adding that he loves to see younger astronauts taking over – and having longer stays in space.
Speaking of those longer stays, although the International Space Station wasn't built during his career as an astronaut, some of the devices that crews use today were originally developed in his laboratory.
After his two space missions — which included logging 438 hours and traveling over 7.2 million miles — he ventured into philanthropy with the launch of his nonprofit, which supports youth programs in math and science education and crime prevention.
Then it was time to go after his dream of becoming an entrepreneur – and his work has always been a bit ahead of the curve.
As CEO and managing partner of Vesalius Ventures, Harris focused on telemedicine before many even knew how that would work and was previously hired by Spacehab (now the Astrotech Corporation), one of the first commercial private space companies.
'That was way ahead of SpaceX and Blue Origin, and what we're doing now," he adds.
As for the future of space tourism and where he believes the space program is headed, Harris says he continues to be excited that there are more avenues to get to space.
'There'll be tremendous opportunities on the moon. And I think that when we then take that bigger leap to go to Mars,' he believes.
He ultimately sees the continued progress as a way to unify.
'When I was out on my spacewalk," he says, 'looking back at the earth, [I realized] how important this spaceship that we live on planet Earth is to us all. From that distance, you can't see the divisions that divide us here on earth. And my hope is that space will be an opportunity for us to come together as a people."
Embracing Infinite Possibilities is out now. You can purchase it here.
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