Astronaut Jon McBride was born in Charleston and raised in Beckley. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School and earned a degree in aeronautical engineering.

After joining the Navy, McBride became a pilot and flew 64 combat missions in Vietnam. He became an astronaut in 1979 and flew the space shuttle Challenger on an eight-day mission in 1984, two years before the Challenger disaster. He later worked at NASA headquarters and retired from both NASA and the Navy in 1989 to enter business.