Who is accompanying Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin's first crewed space flight? Read details

As the 57-year Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, is all set to take off to space in his New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin's Launch Site One in West Texas on Tuesday, July 20, he will be accompanied by his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old pioneering female aviator Wally Funk, and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. No test pilots or flight engineers will be part of the debut flight.

An 82-year-old aviation pioneer

Jeff Bezos has chosen Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot, and an early female aerospace pioneer, to be part of his Blue Origin inaugural launch. She is a space enthusiast who had brought a $200,000 ticket for Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft visit in 2010. Decades ago, she was denied astronaut wings because of gender biases. 

Wally Funk is one of the Mercury 13 women who underwent astronaut training in the 1960s but never made it to space or even NASA's astronaut corps because of their gender. 

And now, this 82-year old becomes the oldest person to launch into space beating the late John Glenn, who set a record at age 77, flying aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1998.

The Amazon Billariore had announced about Wally Funk on his Instagram handle and wrote. "No one has waited longer. In 1961, Wally Funk was at the top of her class as part of the “Mercury 13” Woman in Space Program. Despite completing their training, the program was canceled, and none of the thirteen flew. It’s time. Welcome to the crew, Wally. We’re excited to have you fly with us on July 20th as our honored guest".

18-year old tourist

An 18-year-old physics student whose father heads an investment management firm is one of the four-member all-civilian crew to take part in Jeff Benzo's space journey. He has taken the place of a person who had put up $28 million in an auction to take part in the inaugural space tourism flight.

Welcoming the new crew member, Blue Origin had posted on Instagram and wrote, "Welcome to the crew, Oliver! We’re grateful to have you as our first customer to mark the beginning of commercial operations".

(Image credit: AP)