The Space Race | Meet Ed Dwight | National Geographic Documentary Films

My hope was just getting into space in any kind of way, but they were not gonna let that happen. And they said, number one, I wasn't tall enough. I was Catholic. I wasn't Black enough. I was not the model of the Negro race. I was a one-man operation when the president announced to the world that he was gonna announce a Black astronaut and it kind of took the world by storm, to do all kinds of things.

I graduated 7th out of a class of 17 when they told me I was gonna fail in six weeks. There were no Lelands and Victors in the world at the time. Needed these guys really, really badly at the time. So, and they weren't, that didn't exist. There was nobody I could talk to.

Listening to you talk about that, I mean, you were an explorer of one, but thankfully, somebody was taking those steps and there was a path. 20 years later, Guy Bluford comes along and is the first Black American to go to space. He had a path that was steps in the bush that he could follow because of what Ed did. I've known Ed since before I became an astronaut. And so, I carry his story with me. It feels very personal. And thinking about where I am in the public support, the outpouring of support, it is a reminder of how far we've come, but also, why that work is so pivotal.

One of the things that we must do is carry on that legacy and the stories, because you know, history, if you don't know where you've been, you don't know where you're going. And as we're going, as Victor's going to the Moon, as Jessica's going to Mars, as these people are having these opportunities, because of this initial framework is so critical. And to have that history to know how that struggle took place.

[Controller] Ready for solid rocket booster separation.