America’s first Black astronaut candidate finally goes to space 60 years later on Bezos rocket
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VAN HORN, Texas (AP) — Ed Dwight, America’s first Black astronaut candidate, finally rocketed into space 60 years later, flying with Jeff Bezos’ rocket company on Sunday.
Dwight was an Air Force pilot when President John F. Kennedy championed him as a candidate for NASA’s early astronaut corps. But he wasn’t picked for the 1963 class.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – JANUARY 09: Ed Dwight attends “The Space Race” Special Screening, presented by National Geographic Documentary Films in partnership with The Space Center Houston on January 9, 2024 in Houston, TX. The Space Race will debut on National Geographic on February 12 before streaming on Disney+ and Hulu the following day. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images for National Geographic Documentary Films ) PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 08: Ed Dwight of National Geographic’s ‘The Space Race’ poses for a portrait during the 2024 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on February 08, 2024 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Robby Klein/Contour by Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 17: Ed Dwight speaks onstage during National Geographic Documentary Films “The Space Race” DC/DOX Closing Night Event on June 17, 2023. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for National Geographic ) WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 17: Ed Dwight attends National Geographic Documentary Films “The Space Race” DC/DOX Closing Night Event on June 17, 2023. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for National Geographic ) FILE – Former NASA astronaut Ed Dwight poses for a portrait to promote the National Geographic documentary film “The Space Race” during the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, at The Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. America’s first Black astronaut candidate has finally made it to space 60 years later, flying with Jeff Bezos’ rocket company. Ninety-year-old Dwight blasted off from West Texas with five other passengers on Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Dwight, now 90, went through a few minutes of weightlessness with five other passengers aboard the Blue Origin capsule as it skimmed space on a roughly 10-minute flight. He called it “a life-changing experience.”
“I thought I really didn’t need this in my life,” Dwight said shortly after exiting the capsule. ”But, now, I need it in my life …. I am ecstatic.”
The brief flight from West Texas made Dwight the new record-holder for oldest person in space — nearly two months older than “Star Trek” actor William Shatner was when he went up in 2021.
It was Blue Origin’s first crew launch in nearly two years. The company was grounded following a 2022 accident in which the booster came crashing down but the capsule full of experiments safely parachuted to the ground. Flights resumed last December, but with no one aboard. This was Blue Origin’s seventh time flying space tourists.
Dwight, a sculptor from Denver, was joined by four business entrepreneurs from the U.S. and France and a retired accountant. Their ticket prices were not disclosed; Dwight’s seat was sponsored in part by the nonprofit Space for Humanity.
Captain Edward J. Dwight, Jr., the first African American selected as a potential astronaut, looks over a model of the Titan III-X-20 Dyna-Soar combination during a visit to Air Force headquarters in the capital during November 1963. The 31-year-old pilot was in the first class of 16 Air Force, Navy and Marine pilots who went through the new “Aerospace Research Pilot School” in 1963 as possible astronauts. Only two men of the group were finally selected by NASA and Dwight wasn’t one of them. In recent reports, officer was stated as saying that there’s bias in the Air Force, but that he had no quarrel with the space agency for not selecting him as astronaut. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) Ed Dwight, the United States’ first Black astronaut, has been removed from the space program because he mentioned race discrimination. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) Captain Edward Dwight, the first Black man to be selected for possible participation in future U.S. manned space flights, is shown in his classroom at Edwards Air Force Base. Dwight is one of 14 candidates choses for the Air Force’s Aerospace Research Program. They will be trained primarily for the Dyna-Soar program. The Dyna-Soar or X-20 is to be a winged space vehicle. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) Ed Dwight, the United States’ first Black astronaut, in the cockpit of an F-104. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) Captain Edward Dwight, the first Black man to be selected for possible participation in future U.S. manned space flights, is shown in his classroom at Edwards Air Force Base. Dwight is one of 14 candidates choses for the Air Force’s Aerospace Research Program. They will be trained primarily for the Dyna-Soar program. The Dyna-Soar or X-20 is to be a winged space vehicle. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) U.S. Air Force Captain Edward Dwight Jr., America’s first African American astronaut, holds a press conference during which he denied charges he was eliminated from the space program because of his race. Dwight flew into the Naval Air Test Center here on the heels of widely-publicized charges by Ebony Magazine that he had claimed racial discrimination in the Air Force. Referring to information contained in the Ebony magazine article, Dwight said the magazine “apparently had some information out of context.” (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) Captain Ed Dwight stands in front of the F-104 jet fighter, which he flies today seem mighty tame when he starts training in specially-equipped, high-performance jets that will soar to the edge of space. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) Astronaut trainee, Air Force Captain Edward Dwight Jr., checks flight path of ‘astroglobe.” (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Dwight was among the potential astronauts the Air Force recommended to NASA. But he wasn’t chosen for the 1963 class, which included eventual Gemini and Apollo astronauts, including Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. NASA didn’t select Black astronauts until 1978, and Guion Bluford became the first African American in space in 1983. Three years earlier, the Soviets launched the first Black astronaut, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, a Cuban of African descent.
After leaving the military in 1966, Dwight joined IBM and started a construction company before earning a master’s degree in sculpture in the late 1970s. He’s since dedicated himself to art. His sculptures focus on Black history and include memorials and monuments across the country. Several of his sculptures have flown into space.
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