Edward Dwight finally goes to space.
In the coming weeks, conditions permitting, Mr. Dwight is expected to be part of a six-person crew heading to space for the latest mission from Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin’s seventh human flight will carry an array of adventurers including a venture capitalist, a French craft beer entrepreneur, a retired accountant who was told by doctors she was going blind, and Mr. Dwight, a retired Air Force captain who was chosen 60 years ago, then passed over, to be the first black man to orbit the Earth.
Mr. Dwight found himself in the astronaut training program at Edwards Air Force Base in California in the early 1960s, under the command of Chuck Yeager. (In 1947, General Yeager became the first test pilot to break the sound barrier; he died in 2020.) Mr. Dwight was a handsome and charismatic test pilot, a public relations dream for an administration seeking to take the lead in civil rights. President Kennedy was a supporter, but General Yeager was unimpressed; according to a well told story, General Yeager described Mr. Dwight as an average pilot who had been placed on the A list for political reasons. Mr. Dwight had a different account, recalling General Yeager as a racist who wanted him fired. His height – 5 feet 4 inches – was also a disadvantage, Mr. Dwight recalled.
After Mr. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Mr. Dwight was not selected to go into space. The future astronaut left the Air Force in 1966 and went on to other successes, including as a restaurateur and real estate developer in Colorado and, finally, as famous sculptor of notable figures in black history.
In conversations that spanned several months, Mr. Dwight spoke to the New York Times about his upcoming spaceflight. The interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.
How do you feel about going into space?
It is the culmination of a lifetime of events. I thought it would be a great 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 military and becoming an Air Force pilot, being chosen by the President of the United States to be the first black astronaut, and facing all kinds of criticism. obstacles over the years I have been in this program. But I was playing well, and that’s why they were like, “Oh my God, this guy is making things happen,” and my blackness and my short stature didn’t mean anything.
Then after I left the Air Force, I came to Colorado and became a big businessman, and then started a career in the arts when I was 45 years old. My whole life has been dedicated to getting things done. This is the climax.
What is your dominant emotion right now: anger? That you were lucky? Or something else?
I’m not angry and I’m unlucky; None of these things come to mind. When you are angry, your brain stops working. I couldn’t even think about getting angry or disappointed by anything; It’s my psychological makeup, I suppose. When I encountered people who might have set me back, I rationalized: why did they feel that way?
Chuck Yeager was taught as a child that black people were ignorant and stupid and couldn’t do anything. He and I talked about it, and so no, I didn’t have any anger towards him. People are products of their past, and there was absolutely nothing I was going to do to change their attitude.
The only thing I could do was show Yeager that I could do anything that was expected of me and that I could transcend. Under no circumstances could he kick me out or get rid of me.
Why would he want you expelled?
We were having these conversations, and this guy would pull out a sheet of paper that he was carrying around – a folded, lined piece of yellow paper that had all these names on it – and he would say, “Captain Dwight, I have $100 and $50 . white boys on this list, and every single one of those white boys is more qualified than you to be a test pilot.
And I said, “So, you’re telling me that all these white people are superior? Every street in Edwards is named after a dead test pilot, and every one of these guys is white and dead. They had to have made mistakes somewhere along the line for a street to be named after them. Don’t come and tell me how smart, witty, brilliant and capable white people are compared to black people.
There were 17 people in my class and I finished seventh. I had to remind him of that.
You have encountered many obstacles to access space.
The powerful were not going to give the last frontier to a black man or a woman.
So now a guy who couldn’t fly into space when he was supposed to, is going to be 90, at the end of his career. Some see this as a form of justice. But I don’t think that way. It seems far too late for justice to be done. My philosophy is that everything has a time and a place. This is a natural phenomenon that should have happened at some point.
What do you think you’ll see when you get up there?
During my flight test days, I went high enough to see the curvature of the Earth, the entire Earth, to view the Earth as a big ball. But I’m curious. We lie down in the capsule and you have this big panoramic window. I’m definitely putting this in my gee-whiz file.
Do you want to add something?
America is the beacon of the world. Anyone planning to run for national office should complete at least three orbits around the Earth as a prerequisite. They should consider how precious, sacred and fragile it is.
