America’s first black astronaut who was not selected for NASA’s 1963 class was eventually launched into space 63 years later.
Ed Dwight, 90, was one of six space tourists aboard the Blue Origins rocket that floated 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, which included Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins — two of the three Apollo 11 men who went to the moon.
While NASA doesn’t provide details on why it is skipping certain candidates, Dwight has said racism could be 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 frontier of space, raised his arms and said, “It’s going to be a long time.”
On Sunday, Ed Dwight emerged from the Blue Origin capsule after visiting the frontier of space, raised his arms and said, “It’s going to be a long time.”
Mission NS-25 is the seventh human flight for Blue Origin, with short forays with the New Shepard suborbital vehicle providing a stepping stone to bigger ambitions, including the development of a full-fledged heavy-lift rocket and lunar lander.
The mission was also Blue Origin’s first crew launch in almost two years.
The company was grounded after an accident in 2022 in which the booster crashed but the capsule full of experiments parachuted safely to the ground.
Flights resumed last December, but there was no one on board.
The company has kept tight control on ticket prices, but Dwight’s seat was sponsored by the nonprofit Space for Humanity. became the oldest person to ever go to space.
Dwight, who rose to the rank of captain in the Air Force, stands in front of the F-104 fighter jet. Despite his achievements, he was not chosen for NASA’s 1963 astronaut class
The crew took off from Blue Origin’s launch site near Van Horn, Texas at 9:35 a.m. CT
“This is a life-changing experience, everyone should 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’re still quite far from reality,” crew member and French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron told AFP.
“I’m not quite back on Earth yet.”
In the 1960s, Dwight 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.
Leland Melvin, a retired NASA astronaut, told WSJ, “Ed was 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, which included Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins – two of the first three men on the moon
While NASA does not provide details on why it is skipping 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 co-wrote “We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program” with Richard Paul, said the Kennedy administration pushed for minorities to enter space because it would be good for their image.
After Dwight completed the training program, he applied to NASA, but despite his fame, he was denied a spot in the fourteen-person class in 1963.
The head of the pilot school, Chuck Yeager, who was the first person to break the sound barrier, tried to claim that Dwight had had trouble keeping 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.
Dwight at Air Force Headquarters in the capital in November 1963. The 31-year-old pilot was in the first class of 16 Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps pilots who went through the new Aerospace Research Pilot School in 1963 as potential astronauts.
The wait for the first black person in space lasted until 1978, when NASA selected three black men for the Space Shuttle program. Among them was Guion Bluford (pictured), who in 1983 finally accomplished the feat of becoming the first black person to reach space
“My hope was just to get to space in some way, but they didn’t let that happen,” Dwight said in the 2023 documentary “The Space Race.”
‘If all things had been equal, I would have reached the moon. I had the capabilities, but I didn’t get that chance.’
Eventually, 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.
While Dwight’s dream was put on hold, the path to space was not completely closed for black Americans.
Although tragically short-lived, in 1967 Robert Lawrence became the first black man selected for the space program.
The wait for the first black person in space lasted until 1978, when NASA selected three black men for the Space Shuttle program.
One of the three landing capsules’ parachutes failed to inflate during the return trip, but that problem did not affect the landing
Among them was Guion Bluford, who in 1983 finally accomplished the feat of becoming the first black person to reach space.
Nine years later, Mae Jemison made history as the first black female astronaut.
The other passengers joining 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 from Blue Origin’s launch site near Van Horn, Texas at 9:35 a.m. CT.
The capsule flew to the Kerman Line, the area known as the frontier of space, where it stayed for several minutes to let passengers feel the weightlessness.
However, one of the parachutes of the three landing capsules did not inflate during the return trip, but that problem did not affect the landing.
The capsule door opened around 10 a.m. so each crew member could walk out and celebrate their journey.
Dwight stepped out, threw his arms up and performed a celebratory dance as onlookers cheered him on.