Astronaut--Capt. Edward J. Dwight

Photograph caption:
In class he gets oriented on orbital paths around the Earth that a future satellite will make.

Edward Joseph Dwight Jr. was born in Kansas City on September 9, 1933, and joined the United States Air Force in 1953 at the age of 20. In 1961, the Kennedy administration selected Captain Dwight Jr. as the first African American astronaut trainee at the Experimental Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base near Lancaster. He was one of fifteen pilots selected for the aerospace school, which provided classroom instruction and flight training in space simulators and high performance jets. He served in the Air Force from 1953 until 1966.

George Brich, Valley Times Photo Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
Photograph dated July 25, 1963