Key Points:
- Ed Dwight, first Black astronaut candidate, to join Blue Origin space flight at age 90.
- Dwight was selected by JFK in 1961 to join the astronaut training program but forced out of the program in 1965.
- Dwight is a successful sculptor and will become the oldest person to fly in space.
Kansas City native Ed Dwight, who was the first Black astronaut candidates, will join the next Blue Origin space flight
Sixty years after being selected to be the nation’s first Black astronaut – Ed Dwight is heading to space at age 90.
In 1961, Dwight was hand selected by Pres. John Kennedy as a candidate to join Chuck Yeager’s test pilot program at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert. He had more than 1,500 hours of jet flying time, a bachelor’s degree in science and three consecutive “outstanding” ratings from military superiors. But with Kennedy’s assassination, his support base was gone and he was forced out of the program in 1965.
Now, he’s finally scheduled to head to space. He was announced earlier this week as one of six people who will be onboard Jeff Bezos’ 25th Blue Origin spaceflight.
Since leaving the military Dwight has worked as an engineer, in real estate, owned a barbecue restaurant and operated a successful construction company. However, his life took a turn in 1974 when after building a few things out of scrap metal, he was commissioned to create a statue for the Colorado state capitol by the state’s first Black lieutenant governor George L. Grown.
Since then, he’s become one of the country’s most in demand sculptures, particularly for large scale public installations. Most of the pieces depict Black people, with a focus on the themes of slavery, emancipation, post-reconstruction and jazz.
In 2019, he was commissioned to design an installation “Phoenix Rising Out of the Ashes” that was installed in the parking lot of the recently renovated Linwood Shopping Plaza in Kansas City, MO.
He will become the oldest person to fly in space at 90 years old surpassing William Shatner, who flew on a Blue Origin flight in 2021.
