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![]() Astronaut career īefore his last fateful space mission, McNair worked with French composer and performer Jean-Michel Jarre on a piece of music for Jarre's then-upcoming album Rendez-Vous. McNair was also a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and a member of the Bahá'í Faith. He became a staff physicist at the Hughes Research Lab in Malibu, California. McNair received four honorary doctorates, as well as a score of fellowships and commendations. McNair would subsequently win five regional championships and earn a fifth degree black belt in karate. ![]() That same year, he won the AAU Karate gold medal. In 1976, McNair received a PhD degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the guidance of Michael Feld, becoming nationally recognized for his work in the field of laser physics. At North Carolina A&T, he studied under professor Donald Edwards, who had established the physics curriculum at the university. In 1971, McNair received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering physics, magna cum laude, from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. McNair graduated as valedictorian of Carver High School in 1967. McNair's brother, Carl, wrote Ronald's official biography, In the Spirit of Ronald E. A children's book, Ron's Big Mission, offers a fictionalized account of this event. After the police and his mother were called, McNair was allowed to borrow books from the library the building that housed the library at the time is now named after him. In the summer of 1959, he refused to leave the segregated Lake City Public Library without being allowed to check out his books. McNair was born October 21, 1950, in Lake City, South Carolina, to Pearl M. Prior to the Challenger disaster, McNair flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-B aboard Challenger from February 3 to 11, 1984, becoming the second African American and the first Baháʼí to fly in space. He died during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission specialists in a crew of seven. Ronald Erwin McNair (Octo– January 28, 1986) was an American NASA astronaut and physicist. ![]() Energy absorption and vibrational heating in molecules following intense laser excitation (1977) ![]()
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