The first black man to train with NASA in the 1960s will finally travel to space at age 90 on the next flight of the Blue Origin rocket, making him the oldest astronaut on record.
Ed Dwight joined the US Air Force in 1953 and quickly rose through the ranks to become a captain. In 1962 he entered the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School to train to be an astronaut.
However, despite making history as the first black astronaut to have the opportunity to reach space after training during the civil rights movement, he ultimately lost it.
But now, thanks to Jeff Bezos’ space company, Dwight will be among the six people who will board the New Shepard on Sunday to embark on a long-awaited space flight. Wall Street Journal reported.
Ed Dwight (pictured), the first black man to train to be an astronaut in the 1960s, will finally go to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle at the age of 90.
He joined the US Air Force in 1953 and quickly became a captain. In 1962, he entered the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School to prepare to be an astronaut. (Pictured: Blue Origin flight taking off with William Shatner, 90, on board in 2021)
Pictured: Ed Dwight, America’s first black astronaut, in the cockpit of an F-104.
The 11-minute adventure will take you beyond the Karman Line, which some claim is the limit of space.
There you will experience weightlessness and be able to see the curvature of the Earth before returning home.
The trip will make Dwight the oldest person to fly into space, surpassing just ‘Star Trek’ actor William Shatner, who was 90 at the time of his Blue Origin flight in 2021.
“This is an absolutely fantastic addition to the space age of his life,” his son, Chris Dwight, told the Wall Street Journal. ‘It’s time.’
“We feel like we’re helping to correct something that should have been done decades ago,” added Antonio Peronace, executive director of the nonprofit Space for Humanity, which is sponsoring Dwight’s trip.
In the 1960s, Dwight quickly rose to national fame as the first black astronaut in training at the Aerospace Research Pilot School, gracing the covers of Jet and Ebony magazines.
Leland Melvin, a retired NASA astronaut, told the WSJ: “Ed has been the person who started the legacy of (we call ourselves the ‘Afronauts’) because he would have been the first.”
“I would have walked on the moon, I would have been an Apollo astronaut,” he added.
Steven Moss, who with Richard Paul wrote “We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program,” said the Kennedy administration was pushing to get minorities into space because it would be good for its image.
After completing the training program, Dwight applied to NASA, but despite his stardom, he was not given a spot in its fourteen-person class of 1963.
Pictured: Dwight looks at a model of the Titan III-X-20 Dyna-Soar combination during a visit to Air Force headquarters in the capital in November 1963. The 31-year-old pilot was in the first class of the 16 Air Force. Navy and Navy pilots who went through the new ‘Aerospace Research Pilot School’ in 1963 as potential astronauts.
Pictured: Dwight, who rose through the ranks as an Air Force captain, standing in front of the F-104 fighter jet.
Pictured: Mr. and Mrs. Edward Dwight Sr. hold a photograph of their son, Edward Dwight Jr., who has been the first African American selected as a potential astronaut.
Pilot school director Chuck Yeager, who was the first person to break the sound barrier, attempted to claim that Dwight had struggled to keep up with the other pilots.
And once JFK was assassinated and the push for a minority presence in space disappeared, Dwight said he knew he wouldn’t make it to space.
“My hope was to just get to space anyway, but they weren’t going to let that happen,” Dwight said in the 2023 documentary “The Space Race.”
‘If all things had been equal, I would have reached the moon. She had the capabilities and I was not given that opportunity.”
Ultimately, Dwight followed a different path and became a renowned sculptor.
His works celebrate black history, particularly a prominent Texas monument depicting slavery and black contributions to the state.
It also features Bernard Harris, the first black astronaut to walk in space.
In the photo: Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin and CEO of Amazon.
Pictured: Dwight poses for a portrait in his sculpting workspace at his studio in Denver, Colorado.
Pictured: Images and news clips Dwight saved from his time as an astronaut in his studio in Denver, Colorado.
His son Chris said he will take his children, ages 22 and 20, to watch their grandfather’s flight take off in Texas.
“They will really be shocked by what their grandfather has accomplished,” Chris Dwight told the Wall Street Journal.
“I think it’s going to be one of those things like, ‘Wow, that’s my family, my ancestors, that’s going to space,’ which not many people have done.”
While Ed Dwight’s dream was put on hold, the path to space for black Americans was not entirely closed.
Although tragically short-lived, Robert Lawrence became the first black man selected for the space program in 1967.
The wait for the first black person in space continued until 1978, when NASA selected three black men for the Space Shuttle program.
Among them was Guion Bluford, who in 1983 finally accomplished the feat of becoming the first black person to reach space.
While Dwight’s dream was put on hold, the path to space for black Americans was not entirely closed. Although tragically short-lived, Robert Lawrence (pictured) became the first black man selected for the space program in 1967.
Flashback to the 1960s, Dwight (center) quickly rose to national fame as the first black astronaut trainee at the Aerospace Research Pilot School, appearing on the covers of Jet and Ebony magazines.
Pictured (left to right): Victor Glover, Ed Dwight and Leland D. Melvin of ‘The Space Race’ pose for a portrait during the 2023 Tribeca Festival at Spring Studio on June 12, 2023.
Nine years later, Mae Jemison made history as the first black female astronaut.
Lisa Cortés, co-director of the documentary ‘The Space Race’, told The Wall Street Journal that she is happy that Dwight can finally finish what he started.
‘Sometimes we have to wait for the arcs of time, justice and progress to cross,’ Cortés added. “I think this is Ed’s time.”