First Black astronaut candidate, now 90, reaches space in Blue Origin flight

Ed Dwight celebrates as he exits the Mission NS-25 crew capsule upon landing near the Blue Origin base near Van Horn, Texas, on Sunday. Photograph: Blue Origin/AFP/Getty Images

Sixty-one years since he was selected but ultimately passed over to become the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight finally reached space in a Blue Origin rocket – and set a different record.

At 10.37am on Sunday, Jeff Bezos’s space company launched its NS-25 mission from west Texas, marking Blue Origin’s first crewed spaceflight since 2022 when its New Shepard rocket was grounded due to a mid-flight failure.