Washington, D.C

Washington, DC’s Renowned Astronaut, Col. Frederick D. Gregory

Published

2 years ago

February 17, 2024

Washington, DC’s Renowned Astronaut, Col. Frederick D. Gregory

Frederick Drew Gregory, is the first astronaut born, reared, and educated in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC, which is also home to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. He is a veteran of three space shuttle missions and the first African American to pilot and command a mission in space. He is also the first African American to rise to the second-highest NASA leadership position, Deputy Administrator.

Gregory’s story is generationally entwined with the history of the District of Columbia (DC). In an era of profound racism and segregation, Gregory’s family were respected members of Washington’s influential Black community. When he was born in 1941, members of his family already were making history, and Gregory followed suit in his own time.

NASA portrait of Frederick Gregory.

Gregory’s uncle, Dr. Charles R. Drew, became famous for his medical research and innovation during World War II. His father, Francis Anderson Gregory, was locally prominent as assistant superintendent of DC Public Schools for many years and served as the first Black president of the Public Library’s Board of Trustees; the branch library in the Fort Davis neighborhood where the Gregory family lived is named in his honor. His mother, Nora Drew Gregory, a graduate of Dunbar High School, had a thirty-year career as a teacher in Washington’s elementary schools and led the library board after her husband. Her niece—Gregory’s cousin—Charlene Drew Jarvis served on the DC Council for more than two decades.

Gregory remembers his father taking him to Andrews Air Force Base for air shows and car races when he was a child; that was his earliest exposure to aviation. He also knew several Tuskegee Airmen who were friends of his father and often visited the Gregory’s home, when he was too young to understand their historical significance but enjoyed their tales of flying. As a teenager, he made the connection between flying and the military and decided he wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and military aviator.

Gregory’s life became illustrious after he graduated from Anacostia High School—Washington’s schools were not yet integrated, but Gregory was active in an integrated Boy Scout troop. Nominated by civil rights activist and member of Congress Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Gregory attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he was the only Black cadet in his class and one of very few African Americans at the academy. He graduated with distinction and a degree in military engineering in 1964 and was commissioned as an officer into the Air Force.

When Gregory joined the Air Force, he first flew helicopters and then fighter aircraft, including the F-4 Phantom. He served in Vietnam, where he flew 550 combat rescue missions, and returned to enter the Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent, Maryland. While serving as an engineering and research test pilot for both the Air Force and NASA, he earned a master’s degree in information systems from George Washington University, in his hometown. During his career, he logged 7,000 hours in more than 50 aircraft.

In 1978, NASA introduced Gregory as a pilot among the first new astronauts—the “TFNG” or “thirty-five new guys”—selected for the space shuttle era. His astronaut class included two more African Americans, scientists Guion Bluford and Ronald McNair; the three soon became NASA’s first African American astronauts to go to space. Among his other classmates were the first six women selected to join the astronaut corps and the first Asian American in space. The group received extraordinary media attention as NASA’s first examples of a more diverse astronaut corps. Jet and Ebony magazines featured the African Americans with pride.

Ronald McNair, Guy Bluford, and Fred Gregory, three of NASA’s first Black astronauts from the 1978 astronaut class.

March 1978 cover of Jet Magazine featuring McNair, Bluford, and Gregory.

Gregory flew on three space shuttle missions. The first, in 1985, was STS 51-B, a Spacelab science mission on Challenger, for which he was the pilot, the first African American in that role. He flew again in 1989, this time as commander of STS-33 on Discovery, for a classified Department of Defense mission. On this mission, Gregory became the first African American to command a spaceflight. His next mission as commander, STS-44 in 1991 on Atlantis, was also for the Department of Defense. Gregory claims he was so focused on his missions that he never really thought about being the first Black pilot or commander, but other people made it a mark of distinction.

Gregory during STS-44 on Space Shuttle Atlantis.

After his last flight, Gregory transferred to NASA Headquarters in Washington to serve as Associate Administrator for the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and then as Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Flight. In 2002, he became NASA’s Deputy Administrator, second in command to the Administrator during the difficult time of the 2003 Columbia tragedy and its aftermath. Once again, he was the first African American in the agency’s senior leadership, a position he held until 2005. He also served briefly as acting NASA Administrator in early 2005, after Sean O’Keefe left and before Mike Griffin was sworn in. His NASA career was equally balanced between years in Texas and back home in Washington, DC.

Gregory has received many military and NASA medals and awards, as well as education and civic honors. Like his father’s legacy was honored with a named library, Gregory has been honored with a building bearing his name, Gregory Hall at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

After he logged 455 hours in space, spent his military career in Vietnam and around the country and his active astronaut years in Texas, Gregory came home to Washington for his final stint at NASA and his retirement. This renowned Washingtonian remains active as a speaker, advisor, and consultant.

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Washington, D.C

DC Weather: Breezy conditions and some sunshine for Christmas Eve

Published

57 minutes ago

December 24, 2025

Press Room

DC Weather: Breezy conditions and some sunshine for Christmas Eve

WASHINGTON (7News) — The weather forecast for Christmas Eve promises mostly to partly sunny skies with breezy conditions.

Temperatures are expected to reach highs between 53 and 59 degrees, with winds from the west-northwest at 5 to 10 mph and gusts up to 25 mph.

As the day progresses, sunshine will return with passing clouds, and temperatures will settle in the upper 40s to low 50s. Midday winds are anticipated to ease.

SEE ALSO | NORAD’s 2025 Santa tracker is live: Where he’s at right now

As night falls, clouds will increase, and showers are likely by dawn on Christmas morning. Overnight lows will range from 34 to 40 degrees, with light winds.

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On Christmas Day, scattered morning showers are possible, and skies will remain mostly cloudy.

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Washington, D.C

ECU football heads to Washington, D.C., for Military Bowl preparations

Published

13 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

ECU football heads to Washington, D.C., for Military Bowl preparations

East Carolina’s football team is spending Christmas week in the nation’s capital as the Pirates prepare for their upcoming Military Bowl matchup against Pittsburgh.

The team departed Greenville around 11 a.m. Tuesday, loading onto five buses for the road trip to Washington, D.C. Head coach Blake Harrell rode on the lead bus as the Pirates left campus to continue bowl preparations.

While in the area, ECU is mixing business with some downtime. The team has scheduled practices but is also taking in professional hockey and football games during the trip.

The Pirates’ Christmas Eve schedule includes a practice in Springfield, Virginia, followed by community service and a team bowling event in Bethesda, Maryland.

ECU faces Pittsburgh in the Military Bowl on Saturday.

Panthers prepare for final home game

The Carolina Panthers, currently in first place, are preparing for their final home game of the regular season. Carolina will host the Seattle Seahawks, led by former Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold.

Panthers head coach Dave Canales spent 13 years with the Seahawks organization under longtime coach Pete Carroll and the team’s front office.

Carolina cornerback Jaycee Horn was named to the Pro Bowl and is expected to face a challenge against Darnold and Seattle’s offense.

Christmas Day NFL matchups

NFL fans will have three games to watch on Christmas Day, including a matchup featuring former Wallace-Rose Hill standout Javonte Williams and the Dallas Cowboys visiting the Washington Commanders.

UNC routs ECU in college basketball

In college basketball, North Carolina had little trouble defeating East Carolina at the Dean Dome, winning 99-51.

UNC’s Caleb Wilson scored 21 points and added 12 rebounds, while Henri Veesaar chipped in 13 points.

ECU’s Giovanni Emejuru led the Pirates with 21 points, but the team struggled offensively, shooting 1 of 20 from 3-point range and committing 17 turnovers.

Both teams will break for the week before returning to conference play. UNCW is scheduled to be the first regional team back in action.

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Washington, D.C

The Trump administration is suing the District of Columbia over its gun laws – WTOP News

Published

2 days ago

December 22, 2025

Press Room

The Trump administration is suing the District of Columbia over its gun laws – WTOP News

The Trump administration is suing the local government of Washington, D.C., over its gun laws, alleging that restrictions on certain semiautomatic weapons run afoul of Second Amendment rights

FILE – The U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)(AP/Jose Luis Magana)

The Trump administration is suing the local government of Washington, D.C., over its gun laws, alleging that restrictions on certain semiautomatic weapons run afoul of Second Amendment rights.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed its lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, naming Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and outgoing Chief of Police Pamela Smith as defendants and setting up another potentially seismic clash on how broadly the courts interpret individual gun possession rights.

“The United States of America brings this lawsuit to protect the rights that have been guaranteed for 234 years and which the Supreme Court has explicitly reaffirmed several times over the last two decades,” the Justice Department states.

It’s the second such lawsuit the administration has filed this month: The Justice Department also is suing the U.S. Virgin Islands, alleging the U.S. territory is obstructing and systematically denying American citizens the right to possess and carry guns.

It’s also the latest clash between the District of Columbia and the federal government, which launched an ongoing law enforcement intervention into the nation’s capital over the summer, which was meant to fight crime. The district’s attorney general is challenging the deployment of the National Guard to the city as part of the intervention in court.

In Washington, Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Sean Hickman said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

The Justice Department asserts that the District is imposing unconstitutional bans on AR-15s and other semiautomatic weapons the administration says are legal to posses under the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller precedent, which also originated from a dispute over weapons restrictions in the nation’s capital.

In that seminal case, the court ruled that private citizens have an individual right to own and operate weapons “in common use today,” regardless of whether they are part of what Second Amendment text refers to as a “well regulated militia.”

“There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms,” the majority reasoned. The justices added a caveat: “Of course, the right was not unlimited, just as the First Amendment’s right of free speech was not.”

The Justice Department argues that the District has gone too far in trying to limit weapons possession under that caveat. Administration lawyers emphasize the Heller reference to weapons “in common use today,” saying it applies to firearms that District of Columbia residents cannot now register. Those restrictions in turn subject residents to criminal penalties for unregistered firearms, the administration asserts.

“Specifically, the District denies law-abiding citizens the ability to register a wide variety of commonly used semi-automatic firearms, such as the Colt AR-15 series rifles, which is among the most popular of firearms in America, and a variety of other semi-automatic rifles and pistols that are in common use,” Justice Department lawyers write.

“D.C’s current semi-automatic firearms prohibition that bans many commonly used pistols, rifles or shotguns is based on little more than cosmetics, appearance, or the ability to attach accessories,” the suit continues, “and fails to take into account whether the prohibited weapon is ‘in common use today’ or that law-abiding citizens may use these weapons for lawful purposes protected by the Second Amendment.”

The Justice Department does not include any individual plaintiffs from Washington, D.C., alleging any violations of their constitutional rights. That’s different from the Heller case, which is named for Dick Heller, a Washingtonian who filed a civil lawsuit challenging the city’s handgun ban in 2003.

The administration argues in the suit that it has jurisdiction to challenge current District laws under the sweeping federal crime law of 1994.

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