30 Facts About Challenger Astronaut, Ronald McNair

30 Facts About Challenger Astronaut, Ronald McNair

Tim Flight - December 28, 2019

30 Facts About Challenger Astronaut, Ronald McNair
McNair as a Ph.D. student at MIT, 1970s. MIT Black History

22. Incredibly, 2 years of data were stolen, and he had to get the results all over again for his PhD

As if institutional racism, homesickness and playing catch-up with privately educated peers weren’t enough, Ronald’s research took another severe blow. Disaster struck in his third year, and could have ended his academic career altogether. The results he’d recorded over 2 painstaking years were stolen. Not to be deterred, Ronald remarkably produced 2 years of results in just 1 year. This is one of many things Ronald meant when he spoke of the cotton farm teaching him endurance and determination. At MIT, Ronald also met his wife, Cheryl Moore, a native of Queens, New York, who attended the same church.

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