Late in the National Geographic documentary “The Space Race,” about the overlooked contributions of Black astronauts in the NASA space programs, Victor Glover underlines the dilemma.

Glover was part of a six-month mission to the International Space Station that began in late 2020, just months after the killing of George Floyd while detained by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had sparked a reckoning of race relations in America. He took a poster of an artist’s depiction of Floyd with him into space.

“Trying to rectify the bittersweet nature of this country which chose me as its representative,” Glover recalls, “but allowing these things to happen to Black men and women more than any other people, it was an overwhelming and emotional time for me.”

“The Space Race” is an illuminating, absorbing film about an underreported storyline in our astronaut programs. Using a wealth of archival material and interviews with former “Afronauts,” as they sometimes call themselves, the documentary by directors Lisa Cortés (“Little Richard: I Am Everything”) and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza premieres on National Geographic Channel on Monday, Feb. 12, and streams on Disney+ and Hulu beginning Tuesday, Feb. 13.

It might be timed for Black History Month, but it’s a story for all time, and a must for space and history enthusiasts. (A similarly themed documentary, “Black in Space: Breaking the Color Barrier,” aired on the Smithsonian Channel in 2020.)

Heroes include Ed Dwight, handpicked at the direction of President John F. Kennedy to be the first Black astronaut; Guion “Guy” Bluford, the first American Black man in space, and space shuttle colleagues Bernard Harris, Ron McNair and Charles Bolden, a pilot on the shuttle mission that launched the Hubble Space Telescope who later served as NASA administrator; and Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space who also was featured in the recent documentary “When We Were Shuttle.”

Even “Star Trek” actress Nichelle Nichols earns her honorary wings. The first space shuttle, Enterprise, was named after the ship in “Star Trek.” When it was unveiled in 1976, the main cast of “Trek” was there for a photo op; but Nichols, whose portrayal of Lt. Uhura in the series was a breakthrough for Black actors, took it further. Noticing NASA had a representation problem, she volunteered to go on a recruiting campaign to draw Black talent to the agency — a call that Harris credits for the inspiration to apply.

The spiritual and moral center of “The Space Race” is Dwight, now 90, who paved the way for future generations despite never making it to NASA from the Air Force training program from which astronauts were selected. The reasons were complex — famed sound-barrier pioneer Chuck Yeager, who ran the Air Force program, was not an ally, and although Dwight appeared on magazine covers and promoted the astronaut program on national tours, he came to suspect that he was being used as a propaganda tool.

Dwight turned his disappointment into a notable career as a sculptor, and later became a friend of a more diversified NASA. In the documentary, there’s a full-circle moment that encapsulates both the achievements and potential of an agency still reaching for the stars. 

Reach G. Allen Johnson: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com