Movie Review: The Space Race (2023)

Title: The Space Race
Release Date: June 12, 2023
Director: Lisa Cortés, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
Production Company:The Kennedy/Marshall Company | National Geographic Documentary Films | Diamond Docs
Summary/Review:

I remember well when Guy Bluford became the first Black American in space on a 1983 space shuttle mission.  But this documentary taught me a lot about the background of Black astronauts.  First of all, the first Black man in space was Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez who flew a mission for the Soviet space program in 1980.  Second, the first Black man selected for the American space program was Ed Dwight.*  He was selected by the Kennedy administration in 1961 and was used for NASA’s public relations while encountering all sorts of barriers to actually going into space as he went through training.

The space shuttle program brought new opportunities to break NASA’s color barrier with the selections of three Black men in 1978’s astronaut group: Guion Bluford, Charles Bolden, and Ron McNair.  All three men participated in multiple missions.  Dwight, Bluford, and Bolden are interviewed extensively with frank commentary on their lives and experiences.  McNair, who died in the space shuttle Challenger disaster, appears in archival footage.

In addition to the interviews, I liked that this movie focused on Black cultural relationships with the cosmos through media such as Afrofuturism.  I also like that Nichelle Nichols is recognized for her work as an ambassador for NASA. It’s unfortunate that Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space, is only mentioned in passing.  The movie concludes with Victor Glover serving on the International Space Station at the time when people on Earth were dealing with the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd, showing how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.

* By coincidence, I’m writing this review on May 19, the same day when Ed Dwight finally made it to space at the age of 90 on a Blue Origin mission.

Rating: ***1/2