Terrific Thursday!

Man who was almost 1st Black U.S. astronaut makes it to space more than 60 years later

Ed Dwight was reaching for the moon in 1961.

Put on a path to NASA’s Astronaut Corps. by then-President John F. Kennedy, the U.S. Air Force pilot was offered the chance to become the first Black astronaut.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Ed Dwight, pictured at right, was the first Black astronaut candidate in the 1960s but was not chosen. More than 60 years later, Dwight, now 90, has become the oldest person to fly in space. (Credit: Blue Origin/U.S. Air Force)

Handpicked by the Kennedy White House, Dwight joined the famed test pilot program at Edwards Air Force Base, according to The Associated Press. Even at Edwards, the Kansas native faced discrimination, however, and after Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Dwight’s path to space vanished.

In 1966, Dwight entered private life and, according to PBS, became an artist and sculptor based in Denver. Over the years, NASA flew some of his sculptures into space.

But Dwight never forgot that soaring dream from long ago.

More than 60 years later, Dwight has finally made it to space. The 90-year-old was one of six passengers aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard 25 rocket May 19 as it took to the air.

Sculptor and retired U.S. Air Force Capt. Ed Dwight celebrates May 19 after his 10-minute flight to the edge of space. Dwight, 90, was the first Black astronaut candidate in the 1960s but was ultimately not chosen by NASA. (Credit: Blue Origin)

The rocket launched into Earth’s atmosphere, skimming along the edge of space, for a 10-minute flight that saw Dwight finally reaching the long-awaited goal.

Dwight described the flight as a “life-changing experience,” the AP reported.

“I thought I really didn’t need this in my life,” he said. “But now, I need it in my life. I am ecstatic.”

He told PBS that unlike the other passengers, who were mostly business people, it wasn’t the weightlessness of space that grabbed his attention. It was the mechanics of the flight and the view outside the capsule in which they sat.

“I was more interested in the power and the noise and the lifting, going straight up in the air instead of flying an airplane from a runway or something,” Dwight said. “And it was quite fast. We got up to the speed fairly quickly. The getting into space part was more interesting to me than anything else. There was a big 10-foot-tall window that was next to me, and I was more fascinated with what was going on outside than what was going on inside.”

Below, watch Ed Dwight talk to The New York Times about his place in history.

Dwight told PBS that he never had the time to think about being angry or sad that he didn’t make it to space in the 1960s. He was passed over for the 1963 astronaut class, which included Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 became the second person to set foot on the moon.

Dwight said when he looks back on his time as an astronaut candidate, he thinks of his job as having started the conversation about Black astronauts in space. It would take another two decades, however, before Guion Bluford became the first African-American in space in 1983.

Now, Dwight holds the distinction of being the oldest person to go to space.

He beat Star Trek actor William Shatner by two months, CBS News reported. Like Dwight, Shatner was a passenger on one of the nearly two dozen commercial space flights that Blue Origin, the space exploration company founded by Jeff Bezos, has launched over the past few years.