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Blue Origin’s NS-25 Crew Announcement
Blue Origin recently unveiled the six crew members selected for the upcoming NS-25 space tourism mission, marking the company’s first crewed spaceflight since August 2022. Among the crew is former U.S. Air Force Capt. Ed Dwight, who holds the distinction of being the nation’s first Black astronaut candidate, chosen back in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy himself.
In a recent announcement, Blue Origin highlighted Dwight’s impressive background, noting his selection for the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) – a prestigious U.S. Air Force flight training program with ties to the NASA Astronaut Corps. While Dwight was recommended for the NASA Astronaut Corps by the U.S. Air Force in 1963, he was ultimately not among the final candidates chosen.
Robert Lawrence, the first Black astronaut selected for a space program, was chosen for the U.S. Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) in 1967. However, Lawrence tragically passed away six months later in a jet crash. The first Black American astronaut to reach space was Guion Bluford, who flew on the STS-8 mission of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.
Dwight’s Remarkable Journey
Born in 1933, Ed Dwight later transitioned from his military career to become an entrepreneur and sculptor, specializing in iconic figures from Black history. With over 130 public works displayed in museums and spaces across the U.S. and Canada, Dwight’s seat on the NS-25 mission is generously sponsored by the nonprofit Space For Humanity.
The remaining crew members for the NS-25 mission include venture capitalist Mason Angel, French craft brewery founder Sylvain Chiron, software engineer and entrepreneur Kenneth L. Hess, retired accountant Carol Schaller, and pilot Gopi Thotakura, co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a wellness and health center in Georgia.
The NS-25 crew will embark on their journey aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle, a reusable rocket-capsule combo designed for brief suborbital spaceflights. As the 25th mission for New Shepard, the upcoming launch follows a brief hiatus caused by an anomaly during the NS-23 flight in September 2022.
Following a “thermo-structural failure” of the first stage’s engine, New Shepard underwent extensive examination and fixes before resuming flights in December 2023 with an uncrewed mission. NS-25 will mark the first crewed mission for the vehicle since NS-22 in August 2022, reigniting excitement in the realm of space tourism and exploration.
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