James Bagian, the first Armenian in space

James Bagian is the first Armenian to have been in space. He is an American astronaut and a colonel of the United States Air Force. He was born in Philadelphia in 1952; his ancestors had emigrated from Trebizond (Trabzon). Bagian specialised in space medicine and biomedicine and became one of the first physicians by profession to work in open space.

In the photograph he wears a blue flight suit with NASA and US flag patches and holds a model of a spacecraft. Behind him is the flag of the United States, and the photograph bears a signature.