Billionaire Jeff Bezos flies to space with three other passengers on Tuesday.

Among them: aviator Wally Funk, 82, who will at the same time become the oldest astronaut in history.

For the French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, guest of Europe 1, a good medical condition is enough to make such a trip.

INTERVIEW

Failing to take down the stars, Jeff Bezos hopes to contemplate them as only astronauts have been able to do so far.

Tuesday, at 3 p.m. French time, the richest man in the world, ex-CEO of Amazon, will fly aboard the New Shepard rocket of his company Blue Origin.

A flight of only ten minutes, but which will allow him, with his crew, to leave the Earth's atmosphere and free himself from gravity.

In addition to the billionaire, the capsule will carry three other passengers: his brother Mark, an 18-year-old Dutchman, Oliver Daemen, Blue Origin's first customer, and aviation pioneer Wally Funk, 82.

They will both become the youngest and oldest astronaut in history.

But what are the risks of taking such an adventurous trip at an old age?

"There is no age limit as long as you are medically fit,"

French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy

replies to the

Europe Midi

microphone

.

"John Glenn flew in his 78th year in orbital flight, which is much more restrictive than a suborbital flight," he said.

A good cardiovascular system

"This flight will only be binding during the acceleration phase (when the passengers will be subjected to the thrust of the rocket) and that of the orbital reentry, during which the passengers will be squeezed into their seats", assures Jean-François Clervoy .

"At this point, the cardiovascular system must be in good shape."

There is no doubt that Wally Funk, who claims to have accumulated 19,600 flight hours and learned to fly a Black Hawk helicopter at more than 70 years old, fulfills these conditions. 

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Passengers will spend about 3 minutes in zero gravity, 106 km from the floor of the cows "with the typical sensations that an astronaut experiences: the thrust of a rocket, the sky darkening, weightlessness and a view of the earth with a look that goes much further than what can be seen from an airliner, ”adds Jean-François Clervoy. An "extraterrestrial" experience from which they will return, however brief, "marked for life".