Former US Air Force Captain Ed Dwight fulfilled a lifelong dream on May 19 by venturing into space, becoming the oldest person to do so at the age of 90. His journey on Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-25 spacecraft was the company's first human flight since 2022. The mission took six tourists to the edge of space including Ed.

"Absolutely a life changing experience. Everybody needs to do this," Ed Dwight shared after returning to Earth.

Dwight's path to space has been a long journey. He was selected by former US President John F. Kennedy to be America's first black astronaut. Despite completing astronaut training and excelling in his role, Dwight's space ambitions were halted following Kennedy's assassination.

"I was going to be the first Black astronaut," Ed Dwight said in a Blue Origin promotional video. He added, "Everybody has this thing about how angry I must have been, how disappointed I must have been. As I look at it philosophically, my role in the whole process was to open up a conversation about Blacks in space, and so I served the purpose, and I was very, very proud of it."

Previously, actor William Shatner held the record for the oldest person to fly to space at 90 years and 206 days old, having flown on a Blue Origin mission on 13 October 2021. With Sunday's launch, Dwight surpassed this milestone at 90 years and 253 days old.

Blue Origin, the private space company founded by Jeff Bezos, had paused its launches after an anomaly during the NS-22 mission in August 2022. This incident prompted a thorough review and collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration, resulting in 21 corrective actions before resuming human flights.

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