Fifty years ago Friday, an Air Force pilot and our country's first black astronaut lost his life in a training accident.

  • Maj. Robert Lawence honored for legacy
  • Lawrence was the nation's 1st black astronaut
  • Lawrence died in a training accident in 1967

Some consider Maj. Robert Lawrence the "unsung astronaut." He’s now getting much deserved recognition for his legacy, five decades later.

Lawrence died in a flight training mishap in California on Dec. 8, 1967. He was just 32 years old.

On Friday, his wife, Barbara, family and friends, plus fellow space dignitaries gathered at Kennedy Space Center to pay tribute to his sacrifice for the United States' budding space program.

"The recognition has come in stages, but this kind of completes the process," Dr. Barbara Lawrence said.

In mid-1967, the Air Force chose Lawrence to serve in the Manned Orbital Laboratory Program, becoming the nation's first African-American astronaut. The deadly crash at Edwards Air Force Base in California came just months later.

Lawrence likely would have moved on to become a NASA astronaut and fly on a space shuttle as other MOL astronauts did.

More than a dozen of his family members attended Friday's celebration. They say he blazed the trail for future African-Americans astronauts.

"He really was a pioneer and a trailblazer,” Barbara Lawrence said.

"He was definitely not the last, and his legacy goes on and on," said Charles Bolden, former Marine, shuttle astronaut and NASA administrator.

After the program, a wreath was placed at the Space Mirror Memorial where Lawrence and other American astronauts are honored for the ultimate sacrifice.

Lawrence was also a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, and many members who knew him were at the ceremony.