VOA科学技术2024--Blue Origin Sends Oldest Person into Space

The American space travel company Blue Origin announced that it sent 90-year-old Ed Dwight into space, making him the oldest space traveler.

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

Dwight spent a few minutes of weightlessness with five other passengers on the Blue Origin spacecraft. It reached the edge of space for about 10 minutes. Dwight called the flight "a life changing experience."

With the flight, Dwight passed Star Trek¹ actor William Shatner as the oldest person to reach space. Shatner's flight took place in 2021.

Dwight joined four businessmen from the U.S. and France. The cost of the trip for each was not released. Blue Origin said Dwight's flight was paid for by Space for Humanity, a nonprofit group based in Denver, Colorado. The group aims to send people of many different backgrounds into space as "citizen astronauts."

Dwight was in a test pilot program at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The program called "The Right Stuff" was the training ground for early astronauts. After being passed over, he retired² from the military in 1966.

He later became a sculptor³ who made statues of Civil Rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and others.

The U.S. space agency NASA announced Guion Bluford as the first Black astronaut in 1978, Bluford first reached space in 1983. The former Soviet⁴ Union placed the first person with African and Cuban ancestry⁵, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, into orbit in 1980.

The stories of Dwight and Bluford are among those told in the documentary movie from National Geographic⁶ called The Space Race. It is about Black astronauts.

Dwight's flight on 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. Flights without a crew restarted last December. Sunday's flight was the seventh to carry space tourists.

Businessman and founder⁷ of Amazon Jeff Bezos also started started Blue Origin, a company that seeks to make space tourism popular.

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

Words in This Story

grounded -adj. not permitted to fly

tourist -n. a person who travels for enjoyment⁸ and not for business reasons

ecstatic -adj. extremely happy and excited

1 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 sculptor   

n.雕刻家，雕刻家

参考例句：

• A sculptor forms her material.雕塑家把材料塑造成雕塑品。
• The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一个球状。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

5 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

6 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

8 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。