Sawt Falasteen - 'I'm really proud': first Black astronaut candidate reflects on historic Moon mission

He said he's now living out that once-denied dream vicariously through Victor Glover, who is set to make history on the Artemis 2 Moon mission that could take off as soon as Wednesday.

Glover is a 49-year-old veteran astronaut set to become the first Black person -- and first person of color -- to embark on a lunar voyage.

For Dwight, the achievement is personal.

The 92-year-old paved the way for diversifying the astronaut corps more than half-a-century ago, and later served as a mentor to Glover.

"I have a personal attachment and affiliation with Victor, because I met him when he was 15 years old, and we had a program where we were trying to encourage young Black candidates to go to pilot training and to get into flying," Dwight said.

"And never in a thousand years did I ever think that Victor would take it to heart and take it to the Moon, which is what he's done," the pioneering astronaut told AFP.

"I'm really living my old 92 years through Victor -- I'm really proud."

- Racist backlash -

In 1961, the civil rights movement was intensifying across the United States as Dwight was serving as a pilot in the US Air Force.

He was invited to join a training program that would set him up to become the nation's first Black astronaut.

Dwight says that it wasn't until later in his career that he understood that President John F. Kennedy at the time was seeking to garner Black support, and that "it was proposed to him that if he were to appoint a Black astronaut, it would ensure him the Black vote."

The move immediately sparked fierce backlash.

"The people who make astronauts fought it and said 'This guy will last about six weeks,'" Dwight recalls. "It was so crazy, all the stuff that I went through and had to face, all that criticism that Black people were too ignorant and ill-equipped."

But he held his ground: "I ended up ranked higher in the class than 10 white guys."

But in 1963, JFK was assassinated in Dallas -- a tragedy that marked the end of Dwight's spaceflight dreams.

He was repeatedly told that America wasn't ready for a Black astronaut, and that he'd arrived "20 years too early."

It wasn't until 1983 that NASA flew its first African American astronaut, Guion Bluford.

The historic journey took place three years after the Soviet Union sent the first person of color into space, the Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez.

And in 2024, Dwight finally made it to space aboard a suborbital space tourism flight operated by Blue Origin, the private space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

- 'American hero' -

The astronaut corps has become far more diverse since Dwight's era.

But the upcoming journey of both Glover and Christina Koch -- who is set to become the first woman to embark on a lunar mission -- mark significant achievements.

The milestones contrast with the Donald Trump administration's repeated attacks on diversity policies.

Since the Republican's return to power and subsequent executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion terminology, NASA has scrubbed its public commitment to send the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface in missions to come.

That's cast doubt on what crews for the next phases of Artemis will look like.

The president's efforts have also taken aim at content displayed in museums -- a move critics denounce as revisionist history.

"I feel badly about and very disappointed in America," Dwight said.

"What kind of country have we become that we would elect some person that would take and nullify all the contributions, and the wonderful contributions, if you will, that Blacks and women have made to this story and throw it away?"

"Trying to erase all this history is an absolute tragedy," he added.

But the eternal optimist said he draws strength from the example set by Glover: "He's a natural American hero, in my opinion."

Glover, Dwight said, will "be up here in in the Neil Armstrong territory of people of great accomplishments."

"He's done it all, and they can't take that away from him."

R.Halabi--SF-PST