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PARK FACT:
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Dr. Ronald E. McNair Playground
Lexington Ave. bet. E. 122 St. and 123 St.
Manhattan
Directions: Google Maps | MTA Trip Planner
Acres: 0.62
This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.
Born in Lake City, South Carolina on October 21, 1950, McNair graduated from North Carolina A&T State University and received his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 1978. His first and only complete space mission began on February 3, 1984. This was the first mission to use the space arm, which McNair operated. His second mission lasted only 73 seconds, before the shuttle exploded in the upper atmosphere, above the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven on board.
Parks acquired this land, located between Lexington and Third Avenues, East 122nd and East 123rd Streets, in 1986 through the efforts of Mayor Edward I. Koch, Commissioner Henry J. Stern, and Council Member Caro
