Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, first Latinx Astronaut

Happy Birthday to Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, born on January 29, 1942, in Guantánamo, Cuba.  Méndez was orphaned as an infant, and spent some of his childhood working as a shoeshine and vegetable seller.  He was selected as an astronaut in the Soviet Union’s seventh Intercosmos program in 1978.  Méndez was the first Latinx and the first African-American to travel in space.