Somewhere (I believe it was NPR) I heard that Lyndon Johnson wanted a black astronaut ( they mentioned Mercury 7) as a way to help ease racial tensions. Is this true, and if so was there someone he had in mind?
Are you thinking of this (satire):
http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1998/ootw_980211/bio_9.html
In June l967, Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. was named the first African-American astronaut, though he never made it into space. Several months later, on December 8, Lawrence died when his F-104 Starfighter jet, in which he was a co-pilot/passenger during a training flight, crashed at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=7273
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – When most people think of the first black astronaut they think of Col. Guion “Guy” Bluford Jr. But there was one astronaut who came before Bluford and has been largely forgotten by history.
Maj. Robert H. Lawrence Jr., a distinguished test and fighter pilot, was one of the first to be selected for the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program, which was the precursor to the NASA Space Shuttle Program.
On Dec. 8, 1967, only months after being selected to the prestigious MOL unit, the F-104 Starfighter jet, in which he was a co-pilot, crashed during a training flight at Edwards AFB, Calif.
During the flight Lawrence was performing maneuvers to gather data for use in future manned space flight programs.
Looking at the timeline, there was not much of a chance for a Mercury or a Gemini mission, but they could had been there for Apollo if they had survived.
They? put “him” on the post instead of “they”, just got my coffe now…
Did he want to bring him back?