Hear Ed Dwight’s firsthand account of his experience and the challenges he faced as the nation’s first black astronaut trainee in this video adapted from Chasing the Moon | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Urged by U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy to admit a Black man into its astronaut training program, NASA selected Dwight in 1962. However, the program’s leaders later undercut his historic achievement and kept him from becoming an astronaut. Many believe this was due to racial politics.