First African American Woman Spacecraft Pilot To Speak At IAU General Assembly In Cape Town

By Wallace Mawire

 Dr Sian “Leo” Proctor, mission pilot for the first all-civilian orbital mission, SpaceX Inspiration4, and the first African American woman to pilot a spacecraft and the first African American commercial astronaut, will present a public talk at the Cape Town International Convention Center on Wednesday, 7 Augus,2024.

 The appearance by Proctor in Cape Town forms part of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly (GA) 2024 set to take place in the Mother City from 6 to 15 August. The IAU is the largest international organisation of professional astronomers with a membership of over 12,000 individuals from more than 100 countries.

 Inspiration4 launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from the NASA Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A, the embarkation point for NASA’s Apollo and Space Shuttle missions, and travelled across low-Earth orbit on a three-day journey. The crew’s mission was not only to be the first all-civilian orbital mission, but also to raise $200 million to accelerate research in childhood cancer at the St Judes Children’s Research Hospital in the USA.

  Proctor, currently a Professor in Geosciences at the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona, USA, is also an analogue astronaut, conducting activities in locations that have physical similarities to extreme space environments. She has completed four missions, including a four-month NASA Mars mission investigating food strategies for long-duration space flights at the Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Habitat in 2013, and the all-female Sensoria mission at HI-SEAS in 2020 which placed women at the leadership and centre of our shared vision for space exploration.

 Proctor was born in Guam where her father was working at the NASA tracking station during the Apollo mission and grew up admiring Neil Armstrong's autograph to her father on his office wall. “For a long time I did not understand why I never saw people who looked like my dad in the NASA archives from the Apollo period,” says Proctor. She is the founder of The Proctor Foundation which aims to increase diversity in the space industry by exposing black, Indigenous, and/or people of colour majoring in arts and humanities to experiential learning opportunities focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and encourages participants to use their knowledge and skills in careers that advance human spaceflight.

 Proctor’s visit to South Africa forms part of the national Space Tour 2024 hosted by Living Maths, a STEAM-based educational NGO enhancing learning experiences for students through innovative and engaging methods, and Sakhikamva, an NPO involved in aviation awareness and skills development for the youth in the aerospace industry. Tickets for the public talk at the CTICC start at R50 and are available online from Quicket.co.za by searching for “Astronaut Dr Sian Proctor”.

  The IAU General Assembly 2024 will also feature a 10-minute live radio link with NASA astronaut and Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test Pilot, Dr Sunitha Williams, on the International Space Station at 1:55 PM on 9 August, as well as public appearances by Dr Mae Jemison, former NASA astronaut and the first African American woman in space, at various public events during the General Assembly.