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America's first black astronaut, 90, goes to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket
America's first black astronaut who was not selected for NASA's 1963 class finally launched into space 63 years later.
Ed Dwight, 90, was one of six space tourists aboard the Blue Origins rocket that soared more than 65 miles above the surface on Sunday.
Dwight was an Air Force pilot when President John F. Kennedy championed him as a candidate for NASA's early astronaut corps that included Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins - two of the three men of Apollo 11 that went to the moon.
While NASA does not provide details as to why it passes over certain candidates, Dwight has said that racism could have been the reason because it was a time of the Civil Rights movement.
But on Sunday, Dwight emerged from the Blue Origin capsule after visiting the boundary of space, raised his arms and said 'Long time coming.'
On Sunday, Ed Dwight emerged from the Blue Origin capsule after visiting the boundary of space, raised his arms and said 'Long time coming.'
Mission NS-25 is the seventh human flight for Blue Origin, which sees short jaunts on the New Shepard suborbital vehicle as a stepping stone to greater ambitions, including the development of a full-fledged heavy rocket and lunar lander.
The mission was also 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.
The company has kept a tight lid on ticket prices, but Dwight's seat was sponsored by the nonprofit Space for Humanity - and he also became the oldest person to ever go to space.
Dwight, who rose to the ranks as a captain in the Air Force, stands in front of the F-104 jet fighter. Despite his performance he was not chosen in NASA's 1963 astronaut class
The crew took off at 9:35am CT from Blue Origin's launch site near Van Horn, Texas
'This is a life-changing experience, everybody needs to do this,' he exclaimed after the flight.
'I thought I didn't really need this in my life,' he added, reflecting on his omission from the astronaut corps, which was his first experience with failure as a young man.
'But I lied,' he added, with a hearty laugh.
'You take everything you imagined, you multiply it roughly by 100 and you are still quite far from reality,' crewmate and French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron told AFP.
'I'm not quite back down to Earth yet.'
In the 1960s, Dwight quickly rose to national fame as the first Black astronaut trainee at the Aerospace Research Pilot School, gracing the covers of Jet and Ebony magazines.
Leland Melvin, a retired NASA astronaut told WSJ: 'Ed has been the person who started the legacy of -we call ourselves the 'afronauts' - because he would have been the first.'
Dwight was an Air Force pilot when President John F. Kennedy championed him as a candidate for NASA's early astronaut corps that included Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins - two of the first three men on the moon
While NASA does not provide details as to why it passes over certain candidates, Dwight has said that racism could have been the reason as it was a time of the Civil Rights movement
'He would have walked on the moon, he 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 for minorities to enter space as it would be good for their image.
After Dwight completed the training program, he applied to NASA, but despite his stardom, he was not given a spot in its 1963 fourteen-person class.
The head of the pilot school, Chuck Yeager, who was the first person to break the sound barrier, tried to claim 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 would not make it into space.
Dwight at the 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
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 (pictured), who in 1983, finally achieved the feat of becoming the first black person to reach space
'My hope was just getting into space in any kind of way, but they weren't going to let that happen,' Dwight said in the 2023 documentary 'The Space Race.'
'Had all the things been equal, I would have made it to the moon. I had the capabilities, and I was not given that opportunity.'
In the end, Dwight pursued a different path, becoming a renowned sculptor.
His works celebrate black history - notably a prominent Texas memorial depicting slavery and black contributions to the state.
It also features Bernard Harris, the first Black astronaut to walk in 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 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.
One of the three landing capsule's parachutes did not inflate on the return trip - but that issue did not impact the landing
Among them was Guion Bluford, who in 1983, finally achieved the feat of becoming the first black person to reach space.
Nine years later, Mae Jemison made history as the first black woman astronaut.
The other passengers who joined Dwight included Mason Angel, the founder of Industrious Ventures, a venture capital fund; Sylvain Chiron, founder of the Brasserie du Mont-Blanc, a craft brewery in France; Kenneth L. Hess, a software engineer and entrepreneur; Gopi Thotakura, a pilot; and Carol Schaller, a retired CPA.
The crew took off at 9:35am CT from Blue Origin's launch site near Van Horn, Texas.
The capsule soared to the Kerman Line, the area known as the boundary of space, where it spent several minutes to let passengers feel the weightlessness.
However, one of the three landing capsule's parachutes did not inflate on the return trip - but that issue did not impact the landing.
The capsule door opened around 10am, letting each crew member walk out and celebrate their journey.
Dwight stepped out, threw his arms up and performed a celebratory dance as spectators cheered him on.