America’s first Black astronaut makes it into space... aged 90!

Kansas City native Ed Dwight was an Air Force pilot back in the 1960s and was shortlisted by then President John F. Kennedy as a candidate for NASA’s early astronaut corps. In the end Dwight was overlooked for space travel but this weekend fulfilled a lifelong dream as he flew into space as part of Jeff Bezos’ rocket company.

The 90-year-old Dwight was one of the five passengers aboard The Blue Origin which made its first crew launch in nearly two years. The rocket was out of action since 2022 when an accident involving the booster crashing despite the capsule safely parachuting to the ground with flights finally resuming last December with no crew or passengers aboard. Sunday’s departure from Texas was Blue Origin’s seventh time flying space tourists.

Dwight, went through a few minutes of weightlessness as the capsule skimmed space on a roughly 10-minute flight and afterwards stated that it was “a life changing experience.” Speaking to outlet NPR, Dwight added that he was ready to go again. “I want to go into orbit. I want to go around the Earth and see the whole Earth. That’s what I want to do now.”

Dwight originally left the Air Force in 1966, claiming, according to The Guardian, that “racial politics had forced him out of NASA and into the regular officer corps” and after his departure from the Force, he spent time as an engineer, in real estate, and for IBM before generating a career as a sculptor.

The 90-year-old joined on Sunday’s Blue Origin flight by business entrepreneurs from the U.S. and France and a retired accountant with their ticket prices were not being revealed and Dwight’s seat was sponsored in part by the nonprofit Space for Humanity.

Six decades after his time with NASA, the American made history in surpassing actor William Shatner of Star Trek fame as being the oldest person to fly in space.