Blue Origin, the space exploration company owned by Amazon's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, has successfully launched six tourists, including the first African American man to train as an astronaut, to the edge of space.
The 11-minute suborbital flight, which took off from Blue Origin's base in West Texas just after 9:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, provided the passengers with a unique experience of weightlessness and a view of the Earth's horizon.
The rocket propelled the six new astronauts over the Krmn Line, widely recognized as the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space, before safely landing back in a desert in western Texas. This marked the first successful passenger launch by Blue Origin in two years, following a failed attempt in December 2022 that led to a temporary halt in operations.
During the unsuccessful launch, the rocket began to deviate from its course shortly after liftoff, triggering the escape system that jettisoned the capsule from the top. Although the capsule landed safely, the rocket crashed back to Earth.
However, Sunday's flight was a triumphant return to form. Among the passengers was 90-year-old Ed Dwight, the first African American man to train as an astronaut. Dwight was selected by the John F. Kennedy administration to join the Aerospace Research Pilot School in 1961 after several years of service in the Air Force.
Dwight recalled facing racial prejudice from his peers, including the school's First Commandant, Chuck Yaeger, who passed away in 2020. "They were all instructed to give me the cold shoulder," Dwight said earlier this year. "Yaeger had a meeting with the students and the staff in the auditorium and announced it that Washington was trying to shove this N-word down our throats."
Despite the challenges, Dwight was one of 26 individuals recommended by Air Force officials to join NASA. However, when NASA released their list of chosen astronauts in 1963, Dwight's name was conspicuously absent, according to The Associated Press.
Following JFK's assassination, Dwight believed his astronaut career was over, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. He retired from the Air Force in 1966 and never made it into space until now.
"This is just fabulous," Dwight said after landing back on Earth on Sunday. "I thought I didn't need this in my lifebut I lied. I did."
Dwight's son and grandchildren were expected to witness the launch. "It's really going to hit home for them what their grandfather has accomplished," Dwight's son told the Journal. "I think it's going to be one of those things like, 'Wow, that is my family, my forebears, that is going into space,' something not many people have done."
Joining Dwight on the journey were venture capitalist Mason Angel, French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron, software engineer and entrepreneur Kenneth L. Hess, retired accountant Carol Schaller, and aviator Gopi Thotakura. The spaceship they traveled in was a reusable capsule. "This capsule and today's flight has already flown to space eight times," officials with Blue Origin said during a pre-flight livestream.
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