Jeff Bezos picks 82-yr-old woman denied astronaut wings decades ago to launch with him

Wally Funk, who aced astronaut tests but was denied because she was a woman, will launch into space with Jeff Bezos in three weeks. Blue Origin, Bezos' company, said on July 1, that the pioneering pilot will fly in the capsule as an "honoured guest" on the July 20 launch from West Texas. She'll be the first person to ride a New Shepard rocket, with Bezos, his brother and the winner of a $28 million charity auction. She will be the oldest person to launch into space at the age of 82.

Jeff Bezos picks female aerospace pioneer 

Funk was the youngest of the so-called Mercury 13 women, who underwent astronaut training in the early 1960s but were never accepted into NASA's astronaut corps due to gender bias. All of NASA's astronauts then were male military test pilots at the time. Funk described her excitement at the prospect of going to space as "fantastic." In a cosmic twist, she'll break the mark set by the late John Glenn, who flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1998 at the age of 77. Shortly after becoming the first American to orbit the globe in 1962. It is significant to note that Glenn dismissed the idea of women travelling in space.

On Monday, the company's creator, Jeff Bezos, will stand down as CEO. The planned launch, which comes after 15 successful test flights, will allow paying passengers to board. Blue Origin has yet to provide ticket rates or a date for when the public will be able to board the six-seat capsule, which reaches an altitude of around 65 miles, just beyond the edge of space. The up-and-down flights take ten minutes to complete. The reusable rocket is named for Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and the Apollo 11 moon landing is commemorated on July 20.

Wally Funk is Jeff Bezos's aerospace pioneer 

Funk, who resides near Dallas, was the Federal Aviation Administration's first female inspector and the National Transportation Safety Board's first female air safety investigator. She claimed in the video that she had 19,600 hours of flight time and has trained over 3,000 people to fly. In 1960 and 1961, she was one of two dozen female pilots who completed six days of severe physical exams, similar to those given to Mercury astronaut hopefuls. The doctor who examined the Mercury 7 men had heard that the Soviets were planning to send a woman into space, and he wanted to know if women could withstand the consequences of weightlessness.

Among other things, the candidates had to spend hours in an isolation water tank, swallow rubber hose, and have needles put in their brains. Thirteen of the women, including Funk, passed. However, the mission was unexpectedly cancelled, and the Soviets went on to launch Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman into space, in 1963.

Sally Ride, who died in 2012, became the first American woman to fly into space in 1983. Eileen Collins, aboard shuttle Discovery, was the first American woman to drive a spacecraft in 1995. For that launch, many of the Mercury 13 women assembled at Cape Canaveral. Funk had reserved a place on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic rocket ship years ago, eager to travel to space. She is still on the passenger list, and the business anticipates three more test flights from New Mexico, one of which will include Branson.

(with inputs from ANI)

Picture Credit: AP