First black astronaut candidate, now 90, becomes oldest person to reach space

Ed Dwight, a 90-year-old sculptor and former Air Force test pilot, who was previously denied the chance of becoming the First Black astronaut six decades ago, finally rocketed into space, flying with Jeff Bezos’ rocket company with five others.

“Absolutely fantastic!” he exclaimed after touchdown. “A life-changing experience. Everybody needs to do this!”

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy supported Dwight as a candidate for NASA’s early astronaut corps when he was an Air Force pilot. He was not chosen for the 1963 class, though.

During an approximately 10-minute voyage, Dwight, experienced a brief period of weightlessness along with five other passengers in the Blue Origin capsule as it skimmed space, together with venture capitalist Mason Angel, French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron, software engineer Kenneth Hess, retired accountant and adventurer Carol Schaller, and Gopi Thotakura, a commercial airline pilot and the second Indian national to fly in space.

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

Interestingly, Guion Bluford became the first African American in space in 1983, even though the US space program did not choose Black astronauts until 1978, he set another record and became the world’s oldest person in space. At 10:37 a.m. (local time), Jeff Bezos’ space business launched the NS-25 mission from West Texas.

Since Dwight is two months older than the “Star Trek” actor, he beat the record established by William Shatner, who embarked on another Blue Origin aircraft in October 2021. In addition, Blue Origin’s mission on Sunday marked the firm’s first manned launch in almost two years. The New Shepard rocket disaster in 2022 forced the business to be suspended. Flights resumed last December but with no one aboard. This was Blue Origin’s seventh time flying space tourists.

“There was a part of my career that wasn’t quite fulfilled, and here’s a grand opportunity at this late date to fulfill that for self-satisfaction, yes,” Dwight said in a pre-launch interview with CBS News. “But more importantly, to satisfy all the wonderful people who have showered me with love for all these years. Because it is those people that wanted me to go into space in the worst kind of way. To them (this) is justice.”

The crew capsule was launched by the New Shepard’s single-stage hydrogen-fueled rocket to a height of 185,000 feet during the 10-minute sub-orbital journey on Sunday. After that, the capsule was released to continue coasting upward at a speed of almost 2,100 mph. At that time, the crew became weightless and reached a height of around 65 miles, which is a few miles over the “boundary” between space and the observable atmosphere that is recognized globally.

Before launch, Dwight told CBS News he looked forward to seeing “the beautiful little round ball we call the Earth that we’re not doing a very good job of taking care of, by the way. But it allows you to have a different perspective.”

“I have this theory that I think every politician that runs for public office in the United States of America needs to do at least three orbits around the Earth so they can see what this place is all about,” he said. “And they would stop destroying it. That’s my wish. That would be a requirement for everybody that ran for political office on a national level.”

The spacecraft arced over the top of its trajectory for descent to a parachute-assisted touchdown a few thousand yards from the launch pad. During the three minutes that passed between the capsule’s re-entry and booster cutoff, the six crew members were able to unstrap and enjoy breathtaking views of the Earth below.

The spaceship was intended to land with just two parachutes successfully, and the crew, who were all grins after touchdown, clearly had no issues even though one of the three main parachutes failed to fully fill.

Dwight stated that being an astronaut was the “last thing on my bucket list” and that he had “no intention of being an astronaut” in a National Geographic interview from the previous year. Dwight, a resident of Denver, Colorado, spent ten years as an entrepreneur before retiring and starting a private life in 1966. He then turned to sculpture.

“I’ve had, you know, 60 years to sit on and think about all the parts and pieces of this,” he told CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan. “But the reason I have even the slightest bit of interest in going into space right now is that I’ve had a group of fans that have followed me from 1964, several generations, the fan mail has never stopped.

“The more I thought about it, what better way to fulfill my fans for the things that they’ve been asking me about for the last 60 years? And the opportunity came to fly into space.”

While they were working on “The Space Race,” a documentary on the history of Black astronauts and engineers in NASA’s space program, African American astronaut Leland Melvin reportedly initially brought up the idea.

“This all happened in relatively short period of time,” Dwight said. “We had been working on ‘Space Race,’ and we had been traveling around the country doing film festivals. We were involved in Q & A’s (and) how would you like to go up?” Melvin had contacts at Blue Origin, he added, “so it just evolved.”

Dwight joined IBM and launched a construction firm after leaving the military in 1966. In the late 1970s, he obtained a master’s degree in sculpting. Since then, he has made art his life’s work. His sculptures, which are seen in monuments and memorials around the nation, are centered on Black history. His artworks have soared into space on many occasions.

It’s estimated that a New Shepard ride ticket costs about $500,000. The nonprofit Space for Humanity, with funding from the Jaison and Jamie Robinson Foundation, provided Dwight’s seat.

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