She made history as the first African American woman in space, on the first Japanese Spacelab mission, aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in September 1992. Jemison was selected as an astronaut in 1987 and left NASA in 1993.
Mae Carol Jemison was the first African-American woman to fly into space. Here she waits as her suit technician, Sharon McDougle, performs an unpressurized and pressurized leak check on her spacesuit on the day of her historic launch aboard the space shuttle Endeavour (12 September 1992).