In 1995, Bernard Harris, Jr. became the first African American astronaut to walk in space. He became interested in science as a young boy, and entered his teenage years as the space program began to gain momentum. Remembers Harris: "We have put a man into orbit, and now we're into the Apollo program. And so I watched that develop, and when I was thirteen, '69 was when it really all kind of came together for me....Now, I'm being exposed to science. I'm being exposed to, you know, chemistry, to aviation. I belong to the Rocket Club where we built rockets, Estes rockets. We even built a flying saucer that left a, you know, real big impression on me because I was also, now, I've got television reception, right? So then I'm watching 'Buck Rogers' and I'm watching 'Star Trek' and, you know, I'm watching sci-fi shows. It's just feeding the imagination of this kid."
