82-year-old American to fly with Jeff Bezos to space on July 20

82-year-old Wally Funk will become the oldest person to travel in space on July 20, accompanying billionaire Jeff Bezos on space travel firm Blue Origin's first manned flight.

"Guest of honor", she will be the fourth passenger on board the New Shepard rocket, the company announced Thursday, alongside the billionaire, her brother Mark Bezos, and the winner of an auction whose name has not yet been revealed.

"I contacted NASA four times"

"Finally!" exclaimed Wally Funk when told that she will then become an astronaut, in a video posted on the Instagram founder of Amazon account, where we see her hugging him in an explosion of joy. Wally Funk had become the first female inspector for the US aviation agency, the FAA. Pilot, she has accumulated 19,600 flight hours. In the 1960s, she was part of a private program called "Mercury 13", a group of 13 women who passed the same tests as the male astronauts selected under NASA's Mercury program to send the first Americans to space. She was the youngest to have passed the program at the time.

She was the first female FAA inspector and the first female NTSB aviation safety investigator.

82 year and 6 month old pilot wally Funk will be part of New Shepard's 1st crew on 07/20 and the oldest person to fly in space.

@ AlineSpaceBikerpic.twitter.com / r6cxksztMa

- Jean-François Pellerin (@ JeanFranoispel7) July 1, 2021

"They told me I got the job done better and faster than any of the men," Wally Funk says in the video posted online. "So I contacted NASA four times. I said I wanted to be an astronaut. But no one wanted to take me. I didn't think I would ever go up there." "No one has waited that long," wrote Jeff Bezos in his post. "Even though they passed their training, the program was canceled, and none of the thirteen (participants) flew" into space. "It is time," he added. "Welcome to the crew, Wally."

Completing a lifelong mission to become an astronaut, Wally Funk will soar into space on New Shepard's 1st Human Flight on July 20 as a guest of honor.

She will join Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark and the winner of the auction.

She is 82 years and 6 months old ... pic.twitter.com/BWzWrUQdZr

- Jean-François Pellerin (@ JeanFranoispel7) July 1, 2021

The oldest person to have traveled in space so far is American astronaut John Glenn, who flew in 1998 at the age of 77, aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

The first woman in space was the Russian Valentina Tereshkova in 1963, the first American Sally Ride ... in 1983.

How will Jeff Bezos' trip to space go?

In early June, Jeff Bezos announced that he himself would be a member of Blue Origin's first space tourism trip. A third ticket has been auctioned: the winner, whose identity remains a mystery, paid $ 28 million to participate. Blue Origin's rocket will take off on July 20 vertically and the capsule will separate from it at about 75 km in height, continuing its trajectory until exceeding 100 km in altitude - the Karman line, an imaginary line that marks according to the international convention the beginning of space.

The prestigious passengers will then be able to float in zero gravity and observe the curvature of the Earth, for a few minutes only. Then the capsule will begin a free fall to return to Earth, and will be slowed down by three large parachutes and retro rockets before landing in a desert in West Texas.

Wally Funk also bought a ticket to fly into space aboard a competing ship, the Virgin Galactic. Competition is raging between Blue Origin and this company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, also positioned in the niche of short tourist flights in space. Wally Funk had been told "that a woman's place was not in space", but she did not "give up", Richard Branson had tweeted in 2019, congratulating himself that she was "a future Virgin Galactic astronaut ".

But the Briton was once again hacked to the post by the company of Jeff Bezos. Richard Branson had also announced that he would board his ship for a trip to space, but on a date that has not yet been announced and which is highly unlikely to be scheduled before July 20.