When Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule successfully launched from Texas on Sunday morning, one of its six passengers fulfilled a goal 63 years in the making. Ed Dwight, 90, finally rocketed to the edge of the atmosphere more than six decades after he was chosen to be the first Black astronaut by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Although Dwight, who is an Air Force veteran, graduated from the astronaut training program, he wasn’t selected to become an astronaut, possibly because the man who ran it considered Dwight to be little more than a diversity hire. It wasn’t until 1983 that the U.S. sent the first Black astronaut to space, and Dwight stayed on the ground—until Sunday’s voyage. The flight, which lasted just under 10 minutes total, left the 90-year-old ecstatic; he said the flight was “life-changing” and a “long time coming.” He added, “I thought I didn’t need it in my life. But I lied. I really, really did need it.”
