After a two-year break, the American company Blue Origin made another tourist flight into space. Among the members of the group is 90-year-old Ed Dwight, who was supposed to become an astronaut back in 1961. And although the man did not succeed then, now he has fulfilled his cherished dream. In addition, Dwight became the oldest person who visited space.
Ed Dwight was a US Air Force pilot. Back in 1961, he was chosen for a flight into space. He was to become the first black astronaut. However, then the flight was canceled, and the first African-American in space visited in 1983.
Despite the failure, Dwight dreamed of going to space all his life. On Sunday, May 19, he succeeded. The American became one of six passengers on a tourist space flight organized by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company.
In addition to Ed Dwight, a retired accountant, a pilot and adventurer, a software engineer, a French entrepreneur and a venture capitalist took part in the flight.
Photo: cbsnews.com
It was the first flight of the New Shepard with passengers on board since a launch vehicle failure derailed an unmanned research flight two years ago. A successful re-mission late last year, also without a crew on board, cleared the way for the resumption of tourist space flights.
The flight lasted about 10 minutes, while the passengers were in weightlessness for three minutes.
A ticket for a tourist trip to space costs about 500,000 dollars. Ed Dwight was paid for by Space for Humanity, a non-profit organization with support from the Jason and Jamie Robinson Foundation.
The other passengers — venture capitalist Mason Angel, French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron, software engineer Kenneth Hess, retired accountant and adventurer Carol Schaller and Gopi Totakura, a commercial airline pilot and the second Indian citizen to travel to space — paid for their seats themselves. The actual cost of the tickets is not disclosed.
