The 90-year-old would-be astronaut who finally gets his chance at space

livemint.com:

Ed Dwight, the first Black man to train to be an astronaut decades ago, never actually made it to space. An astronaut candidate in the early 1960s, he became a celebrity in the Black community, landing on the covers of Jet and Ebony magazines as a trailblazing pilot. But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ultimately never selected him.

He gave up the dream and later became a renowned sculptor focusing on Black history. On Sunday, at the age of 90, Dwight will finally get his chance to go to space. He will be the oldest person to fly to space, slightly edging out “Star Trek" star William Shatner, who flew in 2021 on a flight with Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos.

Dwight will be one of six people scheduled to board the latest Blue Origin flight, the first with humans aboard in nearly two years. The roughly 11-minute flight will zoom just past the Karman Line, considered by many to be the boundary of space. Crew members will experience weightlessness and view the curvature of the Earth before descending back to the ground.

“This is an absolutely fantastic bookend to the space era of his life," said his son, Chris Dwight. “It’s about time." Blue Origin said Dwight was unavailable for an interview and undergoing flight training. Dwight didn’t respond to interview requests.

A spokeswoman for Blue Origin said the organization is thrilled to fly Dwight to space. The nonprofit Space for Humanity sponsored Dwight’s Blue Origin flight. “We feel like we are helping correct something that should have been done decades ago," said Antonio Peronace, executive director of Space for Humanity.