Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has picked 82-year-old former pilot Wally Funk, who waited 60 years to fly to space, as an honoured guest to join his company Blue Origin’s first human spaceflight.
The flight will be launched on July 20 with a new record as Funk will be the oldest person ever to fly to space.
She will join Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, and the auction winner on the New Shepherd’s first human flight, announced the firm on Thursday.
Wally’s journey to space began in the 1960s when she was the youngest graduate of the Woman in Space Programme, a privately-funded project which tested women pilots for astronaut fitness.
Later, known as “Mercury 13” – thirteen American women successfully underwent the same physiological and psychological screening tests as astronauts selected by NASA for Project Mercury, but they never flew to space. Wally was the youngest graduate of this programme.
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She was the first woman FAA inspector and first woman NTSB air safety investigator.
