蓝色起源宣布将90岁的埃德·德怀特送入太空

The American space travel company BlueOrigin announced that it sent 90-year-old Ed Dwight into space, making him theoldest space traveler.

The company said Dwight was the first Black astronaut candidateand was picked personally by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. But it saidDwight was not chosen to be among the next group of astronauts.

Dwight spent a few minutes of weightlessness with five otherpassengers on the Blue Origin spacecraft. It reached the edge of space forabout 10 minutes. Dwight called the flight "a life changingexperience."

With the flight,Dwight passed Star Trek actor William Shatner as the oldestperson to reach space. Shatner's flight took place in 2021.

Dwight joinedfour businessmen from the U.S. and France. The cost of the trip for each wasnot released. Blue Origin said Dwight's flight was paid for by Space forHumanity, a nonprofit group based in Denver, Colorado. The group aims to sendpeople of many different backgrounds into space as "citizenastronauts."

Dwight was in atest pilot program at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The program called"The Right Stuff" was the training ground for early astronauts. Afterbeing passed over, he retired from the military in 1966.

He later becamea sculptor who made statues of Civil Rights leaders including Martin LutherKing, Jr., Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and others.

The U.S. spaceagency NASA announced Guion Bluford as the first Black astronaut in 1978,Bluford first reached space in 1983. The former Soviet Union placed the firstperson with African and Cuban ancestry, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, into orbit in1980.

The stories ofDwight and Bluford are among those told in the documentary movie from NationalGeographic called The Space Race. It is about Black astronauts.

Dwight's flighton May 19 was the first launch with a crew for Blue Origin in nearly two years.All flights were grounded after an accident in 2022. Flightswithout a crew restarted last December. Sunday's flight was the seventh tocarry space tourists.

Businessman andfounder of Amazon Jeff Bezos also started started Blue Origin, a company thatseeks to make space tourism popular.

After completinghis flight on Blue Origin's spacecraft, Dwight said, "I thought I reallydidn't need this in my life," but added, "But now, I need it in mylife...I am ecstatic."

I'm MarioRitter, Jr.

The AssociatedPress reported this story. Mario Ritter, Jr. adapted it for VOA LearningEnglish with additional sources of information.

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Words in ThisStory

grounded –adj. not permitted tofly

tourist –n. aperson who travels for enjoyment and not for business reasons

ecstatic –adj. extremelyhappy and excited

美国太空旅行公司蓝色起源宣布将90岁的埃德·德怀特送入太空，使他成为最年长的太空旅行者。

该公司表示，德怀特是第一位黑人宇航员候选人，1961年由约翰·f·肯尼迪总统亲自挑选。但它表示，德怀特没有被选为下一批宇航员。

德怀特和其他五名乘客在蓝色起源飞船上度过了几分钟的失重状态。它在太空边缘停留了大约10分钟。德怀特称这次飞行是“一次改变人生的经历”。

随着这次飞行，德怀特超越了《星际迷航》演员威廉·夏特纳，成为到达太空的最年长的人。夏特纳的飞行于2021年进行。

德怀特加入了来自美国和法国的四位商人。两人的旅行费用没有公布。蓝色起源公司表示，德怀特的飞行费用是由科罗拉多州丹佛市的非营利组织“太空为人类”支付的。该组织旨在将不同背景的人作为“公民宇航员”送入太空。

德怀特参加了加州爱德华兹空军基地的试飞员项目。这个名为“正确的东西”的项目是早期宇航员的训练场。被淘汰后，他于1966年从军队退役。

他后来成为一名雕刻家，为民权领袖雕像，包括马丁·路德·金、弗雷德里克·道格拉斯、哈丽特·塔布曼等人。

1978年，美国宇航局宣布GuionBluford为首位黑人宇航员，Bluford于1983年首次进入太空。1980年，前苏联将第一位拥有非洲和古巴血统的人——阿纳尔多·塔马约·门德斯送入轨道。

《国家地理》的纪录片《太空竞赛》讲述了关于黑人宇航员的德怀特和布鲁福德的故事。

德怀特在5月19日的飞行是蓝色起源公司近两年来首次与机组人员一起发射。2022年发生事故后，所有航班都停飞了。去年12月，没有机组人员的航班重新启动。周日的飞行是第七次搭载太空游客。

商人兼亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝索斯还创办了蓝色起源公司，这家公司旨在普及太空旅游。

在完成蓝色起源飞船的飞行后，德怀特说:“我以为我的生活中真的不需要这个，”但他补充说，“但现在，我的生活中需要它……我欣喜若狂。”