Challenge: African or Afro-American/Afro-Caribbean astronaut the first man/woman on the Moon

Decades of Darkness probably has this. They need to work out the kinks in lunar landing gear.

The OP just says "First man/woman on the moon", not that they have to come back alive.
 
The Soviets manage to the moon before the Americans, and in doing so, assemble a team of cosmonauts from all over the second world. The Cuban delegation just so happens to be of African descent
 
I don’t see any plausible way for this to happen with anything like the OTL geopolitical scheme. A space race run by Western or Soviet governments is going to favor a representative of the dominant ethnicity, even if they all adopt circa-1991 attitudes on race in 1901.

Your best bet to achieve this would be to have some African country pull a China and do a shoestring ‘Dawn of the Dragon’-style moon mission in a world without the Apollo program. What African countries are the best candidates for that? Nigeria? Congo? A South Africa that becomes majority-rule early? And how to induce an early decolonization—drag WWI on much longer?

That, or have a black Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos analogue.

EDIT: Would a Brazilian of African descent satisfy the OP?
 
Last edited:
Top