America’s first Black astronaut candidate finally goes to space 60 years later on Bezos rocket

VAN HORN, Texas (AP) — America’s first Black astronaut candidate lastly rocketed into area 60 years later, flying with Jeff Bezos’ rocket firm on Sunday.

Ed Dwight was an Air Pressure pilot when President John F. Kennedy championed him as a candidate for NASA’s early astronaut corps. However he wasn’t picked for the 1963 class.

Dwight, now 90, went by a couple of minutes of weightlessness with 5 different passengers aboard the Blue Origin capsule because it skimmed area on a roughly 10-minute flight. He known as it “a life altering expertise.”

“I believed I actually didn’t want this in my life,” Dwight mentioned shortly after exiting the capsule. ”However, now, I would like it in could life …. I’m ecstatic.”

The temporary flight from West Texas made Dwight the brand new record-holder for oldest particular person in area — practically two months older than “Star Trek” actor William Shatner was when he went up in 2021.

It was Blue Origin’s first crew launch in practically two years. The corporate was grounded following a 2022 accident during which the booster got here crashing down however the capsule stuffed with experiments safely parachuted to the bottom. Flights resumed final December, however with nobody aboard. This was Blue Origin’s seventh time flying area vacationers.

Dwight, a sculptor from Denver, was joined by 4 enterprise entrepreneurs from the U.S. and France and a retired accountant. Their ticket costs weren’t disclosed; Dwight’s seat was sponsored partly by the nonprofit House for Humanity.

Dwight was among the many potential astronauts the Air Pressure beneficial to NASA. However he wasn’t chosen for the 1963 class, which included eventual Gemini and Apollo astronauts, together with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. NASA didn’t choose Black astronauts till 1978, and Guion Bluford turned the primary African American in area in 1983. Three years earlier, the Soviets launched the primary Black astronaut, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, a Cuban of African descent.

After leaving the army in 1966, Dwight joined IBM and began a building firm, earlier than incomes a grasp’s diploma in sculpture within the late Nineteen Seventies. He’s since devoted himself to artwork. His sculptures give attention to Black historical past and embrace memorials and monuments throughout the nation. A number of of his sculptures have flown into area.

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