In the early 1960s, Ed Dwight, a U.S. Air Force test pilot, became the first Black trainee in the astronaut training program, undergoing preparations at Edwards Air Force Base to potentially face the rigors of space travel. Dwight hoped he would one day travel into space, but he surely never imagined that his mission would occur in 2024.
Despite the intense discrimination faced by Black pilots and engineers at the time, the administration of John F. Kennedy actively pursued the idea of training a Black astronaut for America’s fledgling space program—at least in part, according to Dwight, to shore up support from Black voters in the next election.
When he was selected as a trainee astronaut in 1961, Dwight was an experienced test pilot with an aeronautical engineering degree from Arizona State University. However, he faced widespread racism from both his fellow pilots and commanding officers during his training at the Air Force’s Aerospace Research Pilot School, which was run by Col. Charles “Chuck” Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier. Yeager made his disapproval of Dwight clear, asserting that there were many more qualified candidates who deserved to be in the program. After completing the Air Force program, NASA did not select Dwight for its next astronaut class.
According to Dwight, everything changed with the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Without the president's support, Dwight was given a series of other assignments, including advising Germany and Canada on their then-nonexistent space programs.
Dwight resigned from the Air Force in 1966. After stints in real estate and operating a barbecue restaurant, he found success as a historian and sculptor. Dozens of his larger works adorn national parks, statehouses, and public monuments, such as his statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass at his historic Anacostia home and the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, both in Washington, D.C.
Having forged an identity distinct from the disappointment of the 1960s, when Dwight was originally offered a seat on the Blue Origin flight (funded by the non-profit organization Space for Humanity), he turned it down. He ultimately reconsidered, though, at the urging of several Black astronauts who convinced him to go, including former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. and current NASA astronaut Victor Glover (who is slated to pilot the Artemis II flyby mission around the Moon in 2025).
On May 19, 2024, Dwight finally blasted off aboard the Blue Origin New Shepard NS-25 mission, becoming the oldest person in space. He was 90 years, 8 months, and 10 days old.
A long time coming:
- Just a few weeks before the Kennedy assassination and Dwight’s “de-selection,” Washington Post reporter Jesse Lewis interviewed Ed Dwight in November 1963 about his possible future as a NASA astronaut. In a public relations effort to counter perceptions of racial prejudice in the United States, the article and accompanying photograph were widely circulated overseas by NASA and the State Department at the time.
- Earlier this year, Lewis interviewed Dwight once again for a Post article published in August about his Blue Origin flight. “The trip on the Blue Origin capsule fulfilled my imagination . . . blasting off and being able to look down on Earth from the edge of space. It was absolutely fantastic,” Dwight told Lewis. He also added that it was “a long time coming.”
- Dr. Guion “Guy” Bluford became the first African-American astronaut in space in 1983, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-8.
