KYW Flashback: Interview With The First Black Astronaut To Hurtle Into Space

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- It was May of 1983 and a KYW reporter was on his way to Houston for an interview with a unique Philadelphian.

He was an Overbrook High graduate who would, in a few months, become the first black astronaut to hurtle into space.

Guion (Guy) Bluford was an easy-going Air Force officer and combat pilot who was rooted in Philadelphia and never lost sight of a singular dream.

KYW's Jay Lloyd recalls their interview as a comfortable conversation about the ambition of a youngster who carried his vision through school and into adulthood of reaching for the stars.

In August of 83,Guy Buford realized the dream by blasting off in the Challenger spacecraft for nearly 100 orbits of the earth.