90-year-old Ed Dwight’s dream has come true – after more than 60 years of delay. He is now also the oldest person ever to reach space.
In 1961, Ed Dwight was the first black person accepted into the Aerospace Research Experimental School, the training school from which NASA selected astronauts. Despite being one of the best in his class, he was not selected in the end. Now, more than 60 years later, it’s still in space. This made him the oldest person ever in space.
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‘Life changing experience’
The 90-year-old left Texas on Sunday aboard a New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Dwight and five other tourists reached an altitude of approximately 66,000 miles. They flew overhead for ten minutes Karman line (100,000 km), an imaginary line that defines the boundaries of space.
Shortly after landing, Dwight described his flight as a “life-changing experience.”
Dwight was 90 years, 8 months and 10 days old when he entered space on Sunday. And with that, he broke it register by Star TrekActor William Shatner, who was two months younger when he set the previous record in 2021.
Blue Origin problems
This was the first time in two years that Blue Origin had sent people into space. The company’s rockets were grounded when its booster crashed in 2022, but the capsule landed safely thanks to parachutes. Flights resumed in December, but without crew.
The price of tickets for Blue Origin’s seventh cruise was not revealed. But Dwight was sponsored by Blue Origin, the nonprofit Space for Humanity, and the Jaison and Jamie Robinson Family Foundation.
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