Mae Carol Jemison was the first African- American to go out of orbit. She is still alive today, and she was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, but she considers Chicago, Illinois, to be her hometown. Her parents, Charlie & Dorothy Jemison, reside in Chicago. People look up to her because she really states that you can do anything and everything.

Mae Carol Jemison who became the first African American woman in space when she thrust into orbit on the shuttle Endeavour in She had a big choice to make from dancing and being a doctor, luckily she kept her career of being a doctor. She got in the Cordell University Medical School.

She became an astronaut in June 1987 she went on her first flight on September she was the first astronaut to actually star in the movie “star trek”. She danced in space and brought a poster of professional dancers just so she could keep her hobby by.

She enjoys traveling, graphic arts, photography, sewing, skiing, collecting African Art, languages (Russian, Swahili, Japanese), weight training, has an extensive dance and exercise background, and is an avid reader, but most of all she is inspiration. She is helping kids in Africa.

Was a physician, astronaut, born on September 17, 1956, raised in Decatur, Atlanta. Astronaut Mae Jemison became the first African- American woman to enter space when she served on the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavor in September Jemison's life, however, is also full of terrestrial accomplishments. A high school graduate at the age of 16, she attended Stanford University on a scholarship, graduating with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering and having fulfilled the requirements for an A.B. in African and Afro-American Studies. After graduating from medical school (Cornell University, 1981), Jemison joined the Peace Corps, serving as its area medical officer from 1983 to 1985 in the West African countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia. After serving in NASA from 1987 to 1993, Jemison founded The Jemison Group, Inc., which developed ALAFIYA, a satellite-based telecommunications systems intended to improve health care delivery in developing nations. She also was a professor in the Environmental Studies Program at Dartmouth College, where she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries.