America’s first Black astronaut candidate goes to space 60 years later (2024)

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America’s first Black astronaut candidate goes to space 60 years later? ›

VAN HORN, Texas — Ed Dwight, America's first Black astronaut candidate, finally rocketed into space 60 years later, flying with Jeff Bezos' rocket company on Sunday. Dwight was an Air Force pilot when President John F. Kennedy championed him as a candidate for NASA's early astronaut corps.

More than 60 years after he was selected, but ultimately passed over to become this country's first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight finally made it to space. On Sunday, he flew aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard 25 rocket as it skimmed space on a roughly 10-minute flight.

Guion Bluford made history on August 30, 1983 when he became the first African American in space, launching into low Earth orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. He subsequently flew aboard three additional shuttle missions, logging a total of 688 hours in space. Portrait of Guion “Guy” Bluford.

Ed Dwight, a Black Air Force captain selected in the '60s for the U.S.'s astronaut trainee program, but who never made it to space because of racism, finally reached space this week at the age of 90.

Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February, 20, 1962 in his “Friendship 7” capsule. The Noa picked him up 21 minutes after impact. Glenn, who served four terms as a U.S. senator from Ohio, was one of NASA's original seven Mercury astronauts.

Mae Jemison, a Peace Corps physician who dreamt about space travel from a young age, becomes the first African American woman to go into space.

The Soviets won the race in April 1961 when cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin completed a single orbit around the Earth aboard his Vostok capsule. On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space during a suborbital flight aboard his Mercury capsule named Freedom 7.

Colonel Bluford captured that role in history with the August 30, 1983 launch of the orbiter Challenger. McNair became the second African American in space in 1984, followed by Colonel Gregory in 1985.

Dr. Mae Jemison is a physician and scientist who, in 1992, became the first Black woman astronaut in space. After attending Stanford and Cornell Universities, she served as a medical officer in the Peace Corps.

Mark Shuttleworth, a South African entrepreneur and philanthropist, became the first citizen of an independent African country to go into space. He launched as a space tourist aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft on 25 April 2002, and spent eight days aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Who was the first black astronaut Ed White? ›

Ed Dwight, the man who six decades ago nearly became America's first Black astronaut, made his first trip into space at age 90 on Sunday along with five crewmates aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.

Ed Dwight, the first African American to be trained as an astronaut and the sculptor of major monuments, was born on the outskirts of Kansas City, Kansas in 1933. His father, Ed Dwight, Sr., played second base for the Kansas City Monarchs in baseball's Negro League.

Astronaut Edward H. White II performed the first American spacewalk during the Gemini 4 mission on June 3, 1965. White, pilot of the Gemini IV four-day Earth-orbital mission, floats in the zero gravity of space outside the Gemini IV spacecraft.

U.S. Navy test pilot Alan Shepard joined the astronaut program in 1959. He became the first American and the second man in space on May 5, 1961, when he piloted the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 on a 490-kilometer (300-mile), 15-minute suborbital flight.

May 5, 1961.

Just 23 days after Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first person in space, NASA launched astronaut Alan Shepard aboard the Freedom 7 capsule powered by a Redstone booster to become the first American in space.

She received her first mission on the STS-47 crew as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. On September 12, 1992, Jemison and six other astronauts rocketed into space for their mission. With this successful launch, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space.

Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

But on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space, and the first to orbit the Earth. Nearly a month later, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, completing a 15-minute suborbital journey.