Ed Proctor, who had no college degree and taught himself calculus and physics, helped Apollo 11 re-enter the Earth's atmosphere in 1969. A little over 50 years later, his daughter orbited the Earth, the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft.
In September 2021, Dr. Sian Proctor and three other crew members would orbit the earth for three days on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
“It was the most amazing view of my life, most amazing experience,” Proctor said.
The Valley geoscience professor teaches at Maricopa Community Colleges and was part of the first-ever all-civilian commercial space mission. It was a trip she had been dreaming about since she was born. But as a child, the possibility of someone who looked like her going to space seemed unlikely.
