Art of Life/Donna Parker
Ed Dwight: America’s First Black Astronaut Candidate
On May 20, 2024, more than 60 years after he was selected but ultimately passed over to become this country’s first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight finally made it to space. He flew aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket as it skimmed space on a roughly ten-minute flight, sending him approximately 347,000 miles into space. This was Blue Origin’s seventh time flying space tourists, including: Dwight and five other people.
Dwight, now 90, went through approximately 10 minutes of weightlessness with five other passengers aboard the Blue Origin capsule as it skimmed space on a roughly 10-minute flight. He called it “a life-changing experience.” A brief flight from West Texas, made Dwight now 90, the new record-holder for being the oldest person in space.
Ed was born in 1933 and raised in Kansas City, KS. Dwight grew up in a segregated 1930’s Kansas, on a farm on the edge of town. An airfield was within walking distance, and, as a boy, he would often go to marvel at the planes and gawk at the pilots. He wanted to fly. "My first flight was the most exhilarating thing in the world," he said.
When the Aerospace Research Pilot School was established, in 1961, the White House urged the Air Force to select a Black officer. Only Dwight met the criteria, which included 1,500 hours of flying jet airplanes, a bachelor's degree in science or engineering (Dwight graduated with an aeronautical engineering degree from Arizona State University in 1957) and three consecutive "outstanding" ratings from military superiors. "I went straight to the recruitment office and said, 'I want to fly.'"With that decision, Dwight set in motion a series of events that would very nearly lead to him being among the first astronauts.
In 1961, Ed was chosen by President John F. Kennedy to enter training at the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), an elite U.S. Air Force flight training program known as a pathway for entering the NASA Astronaut Corps. In 1963, after successfully completing the program, Ed was recommended by the U.S. Air Force for the NASA Astronaut Corps but ultimately was not among those selected. Dwight was among the 26 potential astronauts recommended to NASA, by the Air Force. But in 1963, he was not among the 14 selected.
Kennedy was killed on a Friday, by Monday, Dwight says, he had papers in his mailbox shipping him out to Germany. He quickly met with Bobby Kennedy in Washington, who had the Pentagon cancel those orders. A day after that, he had papers sending him to Canada. Ultimately, Dwight was stationed at Wright-Patterson in Ohio, in January of 1964. He graduated the program and totaled some 9,000 hours of air time, but never became an astronaut. He left the Air Force in 1966.
Dwight initially landed at IBM, then he started a construction company. In 1977, he earned his master of fine arts in sculpture from the University of Denver and dedicated himself to his art work. Much of his art work is of great figures from Black history such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Barack Obama. His sculptures focus on Black history and include memorials and monuments across the country. Several of his sculptures have been flown into space, most recently one was aboard the vessel Orion and NASA has named an asteroid after him.
DISRESPECTFUL, RACIAL ANIMUS TOWARDS DR. RAINEY BRIGGS
