He had a dream, a dream that may have had setbacks, and while some parts still remain unfulfilled, other aspects of his vision did achieve great strides.
But never in his wildest dreams did Martin Luther King Jr. ever imagine that astronauts actually living in space, would be celebrating a day commemorating his honor and memory.
NASA Astronauts Tim Kopra and Scott Kelly took the time off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 18, from their work aboard the International Space Station to celebrate and honor the man who did so much for racial equality in the United States and beyond. Kelly even tweeted out a picture of space taken from the ISS.
Honoring #MLKDay from @space_station. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with the smallest step." #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/8kFhnDKXif
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 18, 2016
They were joined by astronaut Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, who himself gave honor to his country, by being the first British astronaut to come aboard the International Space Station.
Meanwhile Cosmonauts Yuri Malenchenko, Mikhail Kornienko, and Sergey Volkov will be keeping the station up and functioning as they keep a full schedule to give their fellow space men time to enjoy the important date.
NASA for its part also released a tribute for Martin Luther King Jr. last January 15 in the form of a short and simple video which featured a charcoal sketch of the icon.
This isn’t the first time NASA paid tribute to the great man though. Just last year NASA’s Twitter account posted an image of Atlanta City, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Leader, from space.
For #MartinLutherKingDay, here's a @Space_Station photo of Atlanta, where #MLK, who inspired us to dream, was born. pic.twitter.com/uVaWiGBMU0
— NASA (@NASA) January 19, 2015
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister who went on to become an activist and the leader of the African-American civil rights leader. He was well known for using non violent civil disobedience for his cause. Sadly his opponents did not have such qualms, and he was shot at 6:01 pm on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee on April 4, 1968 .
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