Prepare for launch: This 82-year-old woman is going to space with Jeff Bezos
Wally Funk trained to be an astronaut 60 years ago. On July 20, she will be able to fulfill her lifelong dream and become the oldest person to ever fly to space.
Jeff Bezos’ aerospace manufacturing and spaceflight services company Blue Origin recently announced that 82-year-old pilot Wally Funk, the pioneer of “Mercury 13” Women in Space program, will be the fourth and final crew member of its New Shepard maiden human flight.
Funk will join Bezos and his brother Mark, and the $28 million seat auction winner on the suborbital flight that coincides with the 52nd anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
In the 1960s, Funk became the youngest graduate of the privately funded Woman in Space Program, which tested female pilots if they are fit to go to space. She was told that she had done better and completed the work faster than any of the guys.
Thirteen American women volunteered to undergo the program, which required them to take rigorous physical and mental screening tests. The program was abruptly cancelled and they never made it to space.
This group of women was later known as the “Mercury 13.”
Funk said in the video posted by Bezos on Instagram that she told NASA she wanted to become an astronaut four times but she was thumbed down.
“They said, ‘Well, you’re a girl, you can’t do that.’ I said guess what, doesn’t matter what you are, you can still do it if you want to do it.’ And I like to do things that nobody has ever done,” Funk said.
As a pilot, Funk has clocked 19,600 flight hours across her career and taught about 3,000 to fly. She has several “firsts” under her belt, including being the first woman to be a Federal Aviation Administration inspector in the US, and the first woman air safety investigator for the National Transport Safety Board.
In an Instagram post, Bezos, who recently stepped down as Amazon CEO, welcomed Funk as the guest of honor at the New Shepard’s maiden human flight.
Funk was beyond excited to hear the news, which Bezos delivered himself in person.
According to Blue Origin’s website, New Shepard, which was named after Alan Shepard, the first American to go to space, is a fully autonomous vehicle. This means every person onboard is a passenger and there are no pilots. New Shepard will launch from the company’s site in West Texas.
For one to be considered in this suborbital trip, one must meet a long list of “functional requirements” listed by Blue Origin.
According to the company, passengers must be between 5ft. and 6’4” tall, weighing 110 to 223 lbs. They also must be able to climb the New Shepard launch tower (equivalent to seven flights of stairs) in under 90 seconds.
Other requirements include being able to sit strapped in the crew capsule’s reclined seat for 40 minutes (up to 90 minutes if there is a launch delay) without getting up, and without access to a bathroom.
Blue origin said it will provide necessary familiarization and training to those who will be onboard for them to be spaceflight-ready.
Well, Wally Funk has been spaceflight ready for 60 years. It’s about time.
Banner and thumbnail photos from @jeffbezos and www.blueorigin.com