America’s first black astronaut candidate finally launched into space 60 years later, flying with Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, this Sunday. Ed Dwight was an Air Force pilot when President John F. Kennedy proposed him as a candidate for NASA’s first astronaut corps. But he was not chosen for the 1963 mission.
Dwight, now 90, experienced a few minutes of weightlessness with five other passengers aboard the Blue Origin capsule as it cruised through space on a roughly 10-minute flight. He called it “a life-changing experience.” “I thought I didn’t really need this in my life,” he said shortly after leaving the capsule. “But now I need it in my life… I’m 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 when he flew in 2021. It was Blue Origin’s first crewed launch in nearly two years. The company was put out of commission after an accident in 2022 in which the booster crashed, but the capsule filled with experiments parachuted safely last December, but with no one on board.
This was the seventh time Blue Origin took a trip with space tourists. Dwight, a sculptor from Denver, was joined by four businessmen from the United States and France and a retired accountant. Their ticket prices were not revealed; The seat was sponsored in part by the nonprofit organization Space for Humanity.
Dwight was among the potential astronauts the Air Force recommended to NASA, but he was not chosen for the class of 1963, which included eventual Gemini and Apollo astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin and Apollo 11’s Michael Collins. NASA did not select black astronauts until 1978, and Guion Bluford became the first African American in space in 1983. Three years earlier, the Soviets sent the first black astronaut, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, a Cuban of African descent.
In 1966, Dwight joined IBM and founded a construction company, before earning a master’s degree in sculpture in the late 1970s. He devoted himself to art ever since. His sculptures focus on black history and include memorials and monuments throughout the country. Several of his sculptures have flown into space.
