Edward Dwight is finally going to space.
Soon, when conditions allow, Dwight, 90, is expected to be part of a six-person crew headed to space on the latest mission from Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin’s seventh human flight will carry a venture capitalist, a craft beer entrepreneur from France, a retired accountant who doctors have told is going blind, and Dwight, a retired Air Force captain who is 60 years old. years ago he was chosen and then overlooked to be the first black man to orbit the Earth.
Dwight was in the astronaut training program at Edwards Air Force Base in California in the early 1960s under Chuck Yeager. (In 1947, General Yeager became the first test pilot to break the sound barrier; he died in 2020.) Dwight was a handsome and charismatic test pilot, a public relations dream for an Administration seeking to lead on civil rights. President John F. Kennedy supported him, but according to a well-documented story, General Yeager described Dwight as an average pilot who had been placed on the list for political reasons. Dwight had a different version, remembering General Yeager as a racist who didn’t want him on the show. His height (5 feet 6 inches) was also a disadvantage, Dwight recalled.
After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Dwight was not selected to go to space. He left the Air Force in 1966 and became a restaurateur and real estate developer in Colorado and, eventually, a celebrated sculptor of figures from black history.
Dwight spoke to The New York Times about the upcoming flight.
How do you feel about going to space?
I thought this would be a nice ending to a fascinating story about everything I’ve been through and my reaction to adverse conditions.
Everything I’ve done has been an uphill battle: joining the Army and being an Air Force pilot, being chosen by the President to be the first black astronaut, and facing obstacles while in that program. But I was performing well, and being black and my height meant nothing. Then, after leaving the Air Force, I came to Colorado and became a great businessman — and then began a career in art at age 45. My whole life has been focused on getting ahead. This is the culmination.
What is your predominant emotion now—anger? What has been lucky? Or something else?
I’m not angry and I’m not lucky; None of those things are on my mind. When you get angry, your brain stops working. I couldn’t even think about getting angry or disappointed about anything. When I encountered people who might have caused me a setback, I rationalized: Why did they feel that way? Chuck Yeager as a child was taught that black people were ignorant and couldn’t do anything. He and I had conversations about it, so no, I didn’t have any anger toward him. People are products of their origins and nothing I did was going to change his attitude.
He faced numerous obstacles to going to space.
The powerful were not going to cede the final frontier to a black person or a woman.
So now, a guy who couldn’t fly into space when he was supposed to, will go to 90 years old. Some people think that’s justice. But I don’t think like that. My philosophy is that everything has a time and a place. This is a natural occurrence that should have occurred at some point.
Do you want to add anything else?
The US is the light that guides the world. Anyone thinking about running for national office should make at least three orbits around the Earth. You should look at how valuable it is, and how sacred and how fragile it is.
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