Hours after his historic maiden trip to space, 90-year-old Ed Dwight sat among three retired black NASA astronauts who congratulated him for paving the way for them to enter orbit and dubbed his flight onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-25 spacecraft “justice.”
More than six decades after President John F. Kennedy appointed him as the nation’s first black astronaut candidate to the elite Aerospace Research Pilot School, the Air Force program from which NASA astronauts were chosen, Dwight finally accomplished on Sunday what he had been denied all those years.
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Retired NASA astronauts and Space Shuttle veterans Leland Melvin, Charles Bolden, and Bernard Harris welcomed and cheered him when he returned to Earth as the world’s oldest person to travel to space, telling him that their accomplishments were only possible because of him.
“Now we have justice in getting the history books filled with Ed Dwight flying into space and receiving his justice,” Melvin, who went on two space missions aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, told ABC News.
Kennedy appointed Dwight to the Aerospace Research Pilot School and the Air Force endorsed him, but after Kennedy’s assassination, the NASA astronaut corps did not select him.
Dwight entered private life in 1966, spent a decade as an entrepreneur, and then became a sculptor of historical black characters. He told ABC News that the disappointment of not being able to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut tortured him after quitting the Air Force.
“I always finish the projects I start. Then this thing appeared, and it was a huge, unexplained question mark sitting there,” Dwight explained. “And so, the tendency for human beings in a situation like that is to blow it off and say you don’t need it.”
However, as more sponsors and followers encouraged him to take advantage of the opportunity, he began “analyzing the necessity of bringing it to the front of my brain.”
“I found out that I did need that because I needed to finish it,” stated Dwight.
Dwight was one of six people who launched into space from the isolated Texas desert on Sunday on the New Shepard. The non-profit Space for Humanity funded Dwight’s flight.
Dwight, a retired Air Force captain, told ABC News that he had already experienced weightlessness during his training in the 1960s and was not interested in it.
“I wanted to look outside,” Dwight stated. Several people I respect informed me that if I had to choose between being weightless for 10 minutes or something similar and looking, I would prioritize looking because I’m naturally curious.
He continued, “When you see something as magnificent as this Earth and pay close attention to it, it’s mind-boggling.” I mean, it shakes your head.”
Dwight proposed that every elected leader in Congress be required to view Earth from space, describing the event as life-changing.
“If they were to fly around this globe two or three times, they would see the necessity of this planet [being] unified and see what they’re losing by destroying it,” stated Dwight.
Harris, who flew on two NASA Space Shuttle missions, said that while he saw Dwight finally fulfill his objective, he reflected on what doors may have opened for black Americans if Dwight had become an astronaut six decades earlier.
“I dreamed of being an astronaut after looking at Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when I was 13 years old,” Harris stated. What if Ed had actually flown? What a difference it would have made in my life, because at that time, I didn’t see anyone who looked like me.”
Harris turned to Dwight, who was seated next to him, and said, “So, seeing you today lift off, we all sobbed. And we sincerely appreciate what you did today, as well as years ago.
Bolden, who flew four Space Shuttle missions before becoming NASA’s first black administrator, said seeing Dwight go into space “filled a hole.”
“We really, really, really needed this,” added Bolden, citing Dwight as a role model for young people who can achieve any goal with “persistence.”
“I want a whole jar of that,” Dwight stated. “I want to get into space. That’s what I want to do.
