In the 1960s, Air Force test pilot Ed Dwight missed the opportunity to become NASA’s first Black astronaut due to racial controversies. However, Blue Origin has now listed the 90-year-old Dwight as one of the six crew members for its upcoming New Shepard suborbital rocket ship flight. After a successful uncrewed research mission last December, crewed flights are set to resume soon. Dwight, now a sculptor, will have his flight sponsored by Space for Humanity and the Jaison and Jamie Robinson Foundation.
Dwight’s story is featured in a National Geographic documentary titled “The Space Race.” Despite being President John F. Kennedy’s choice for an Air Force flight training program leading to NASA, Dwight was passed over for selection as an astronaut. He attributed this decision to racism and expressed his hope of entering space in any capacity. Guion Bluford Jr. would later become NASA’s first Black astronaut in 1983, two decades after Dwight’s missed opportunity.
Blue Origin has a history of including pioneers on its crew lists. The first crewed flight in 2021 featured Wally Funk, a member of the “Mercury 13” group of women pilots who were not chosen as NASA astronauts. Dwight could potentially become the oldest person in space history on a suborbital trip, surpassing William Shatner’s record. Shatner reached space as a 90-year-old, and Dwight is currently 90 years and 198 days old. Blue Origin has not yet announced the specific flight date but has confirmed that it will be soon.
The other five crew members on the list for New Shepard’s next flight are Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, and Gopi Thotakura. These individuals come from diverse backgrounds, including venture capital, brewing, software engineering, genealogy, accounting, holistic wellness, and aviation. Blue Origin has emphasized its commitment to promoting STEM education through its Club for the Future program, which will see each crew member carrying a postcard to space on behalf of the organization.
The upcoming mission will be the 25th New Shepard flight, with a history of successful crewed and uncrewed missions since 2015. Thirty-one spacefliers have surpassed the internationally accepted boundary for spaceflight, the Karman Line, which is set at 100 kilometers (62 miles) above Earth. Blue Origin maintains a level of privacy regarding its flight arrangements, including customer payments. Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder, stated that sales had reached nearly $100 million after the first crewed flight in 2021, with significant demand for future spaceflights.
In an upcoming all-female New Shepard crew flight, Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, plans to lead remarkable women who are paving the way for future female astronauts. Sanchez’s intention to conduct the flight this year was revealed in an interview with Vogue, but further details on the crew members or specifics of the flight have not been disclosed. Blue Origin’s commitment to increasing accessibility to space through private spaceflight initiatives continues to shape the landscape of commercial space exploration.
