Frederick Gregory

Personal context

Summary

Frederick Gregory is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, test pilot, and NASA astronaut who later served as NASA deputy administrator. He commanded three space shuttle missions and has appeared in documentaries about NASA and Black astronauts. In a NASA oral history, he said “background diversity was extremely important”; he has also rejected the idea that minority and women astronauts were selected because of race or gender, saying they earned their places through their skills. No public record of party campaigning or activist affiliations is evident.