The BETA Magazine

Growing up, Christopher Williams didn't think being an astronaut was a job he could actually have — the odds seemed too long. So he built toward space a different way: a physics degree from Stanford, a PhD in astrophysics from MIT, and a career as a board-certified medical physicist, completing his residency at Harvard Medical School before leading MRI-guided radiation therapy research at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 2021. On 27 November 2025, Williams launched aboard the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, joining Expedition 74 aboard the International Space Station as flight engineer — his first spaceflight, on a mission scheduled to run roughly eight months, into the summer of 2026.

The distance between "I don't see this as realistic" and "currently in orbit" was decades — but it was covered one deliberate step at a time. That's the whole point of a motivational moment: not the leap, but the walk.

Now in its third year, Channel 4's Black in Business programme, run in partnership with Lloyds, gives Black entrepreneurs across the UK a shot at a bespoke television advert plus six months of tailored marketing support and mentorship — the kind of exposure that's normally well out of reach for a small or mid-sized business.

Nine businesses have made this year's shortlist from a highly competitive field of applicants nationwide. Four will be selected as winners later this month, with their adverts set to air in 2027. Past winners — including Nylah's Naturals and Flake Bake — have gone on to significant brand growth off the back of the exposure.

Teyana Taylor takes the curator's chair. The Oscar and Grammy-nominated performer has been named Chief Curator of the 2026 ESSENCE Festival of Culture, presented by Coca-Cola, in New Orleans. In a newly created role, Taylor and her creative team will shape programming across the festival's biggest stages, bringing her own lens on Black culture and creative storytelling to the event.

Black Business Month, coast to coast. The Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce is holding its 4th Annual Black Business Month Celebration on 6 August, honouring standout Black-owned businesses in the region — one of many such events happening across the US this summer.

Katherine Johnson's orbital trajectory calculations were trusted over an electronic computer's by John Glenn himself ahead of his historic 1962 flight. Her work quietly shaped the entire American space programme — decades before "flight engineer" was a job title available to someone who looked like her.