One week ago today, Sunday, May 19, 2024, Ed Dwight of Denver, Colorado, went to the edge of space, powered by Blue Origin’s New Shephard rocket booster. Ed is 90 years old, and, by my calculations, 40 days older than William Shatner of Star Trek fame was when he took the same flight in 2021.

But it’s the back story that’s interesting. Captain Ed Dwight was selected as the first black astronaut candidate by President Kennedy in 1961.

Ed was not selected as an astronaut, most likely because he was black, even though he did complete test pilot school and astronaut training. This snippet from the Denver Post summarizes that period in Ed’s life:

Dwight was among the 26 potential astronauts recommended to NASA by the Air Force. But in 1963, he wasn’t among the 14 selected. Dwight’s astronaut future took a more drastic turn when Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

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.

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.

Asked if he was bitter about his experience, Dwight exclaims, “God no!”

“Here you get a little 5-foot-four guy who flies airplanes and the next thing you know this guy is in the White House meeting all these senators and congressmen, standing in front of all these captains of industry and have them pat me on the back and shake my hand,” Dwight says. “Are you kidding me? What would I be bitter about? That opened the world to me.”

Ed moved to Denver, ran a successful construction business for 10 years, and then became an artist – a sculptor specializing in Black history. His work includes memorials and monuments across the country. Several of his sculptures have flown into space.

In another article, originally by the NY Times but published by the Denver Post, Ed was asked how he felt about going into space. He responded:

It’s a culmination of a long life of events. I’ve thought this would be a nice end of a fascinating story about all I’ve gone through and my reaction to adverse conditions.

Everything I’ve done has been an uphill battle: getting into the military and being an Air Force pilot, getting chosen by the president of the United States to be the first Black astronaut, and facing all kinds of obstacles in the years that I was in that program. But I was performing well, and that’s why they would say, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s getting things done,’ and my Blackness and my shortness didn’t mean a damn thing.

Then, after I left the Air Force, I came to Colorado and became a big-time businessman — and then started an art career at the age of 45.

Before the flight, he was asked if he was angry at how things turned out:

I’m not angry and I’m not lucky; neither of those things is in my mind. When you get angry, your brain stops working. I couldn’t even think about getting angry or disappointed about anything…

After the flight, the NY Times reported his reaction:

After landing, at the end of a flight that lasted 9 minutes and 53 seconds, Mr. Dwight stood on the steps outside the door of the crew capsule, raised his arms in the air and said, “Long time coming.”

Minutes later, standing outside the capsule, he said that the flight had been “life-changing.” He admitted that he had been saying, earlier in the day, that he didn’t need the flight in his life. “But I lied,” he said.

He feels that…

…finally making it to space was not justice, but something that should have happened at some point. “My whole life has been about getting things done,” Mr. Dwight said. “This is the culmination.”

Well done and well deserved, Captain Dwight!

A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul… (Proverbs 13.19, ESV)

PS You can watch a 2-hour presentation of the entire mission at the Blue Origin website. They talk about Ed Dwight from just before 1:15 to just before 1:18, including a tour of his art studio. The flight starts just after 1:20 and lasts about 10 minutes. You can see the ascent through MECO (main engine cutoff). You can also see the soft landing of the rocket booster two miles from where it was launched and then the capsule’s landing. They spend a lot of time with Ed (90 years old, remember) and his wife after. Worth some of your time! Here’s a picture I made from the computer: Ed and his wife after the flight: